Maduro to pray ‘bad’ prayer in vending dispute

While claiming that the market in Road Town is not suitable for vendors, former Chief Immigration Officer Edmund Maduro said he will pray for God to get rid of anyone who tries to remove vendors from the streets of the British Virgin Islands capital.

“Stop being ignorant and wicked to the poor people. If I don’t forget, I am going to pray to God for him to get rid of those who are trying to get rid of the people,” Maduro fumed. BVI News Online has found it fit to omit a part of what he said would be included in the prayer.

Maduro, in a telephone call to our news team, claimed that the former United Party government had given the vendors adequate space to do business where the market is now located near the round-about.

But Maduro lamented that a subsequent administration allowed private buildings to be erected in the area, leaving the vendors with very little space.

“The United Party had designed all that [market] place where they now have those houses on the other side of the round-about for the people to do the same thing (vend). And the other greedy people went and build big houses right there where the people were supposed to be selling their little this, that, and the other. Now they (Government representatives) don’t want them to stand on the side of the street. There is no place else for them to be,” he said.

“From the time the world began and agriculture came in place, the market-place was a place where people go and sold what they grew. The marketplace is a culture in every country you go in. We have to stop being dumb jackasses; I am not going to stand for it; It cannot be justified.”

Maduro added that the government has been trying to remove the vendors from the streets for more than a decade now.

“It’s nothing new; it is over a decade since they have been trying to push those people from there. They have no Godly love for the people; all they are interested in is pleasing their big rich friends.”

Maduro, in the meantime, said he does not support vendors who litter the streets. “If they are leaving garbage, then you punish them. There is a law governing garbage. And there is a law that protects the people’s right to life, and you cannot protect your right without finding something to make a dollar.”