Renowned South Sudanese businessman Ayii Duang Ayii on Thursday evening accused the Ministry of Interior of attempting to forcefully grab his land.
Addressing a media briefing, Duang claimed that he bought the land in question, located in Juba town adjacent to Juba National Prison, from the National Prison Services which yet again wants to forcefully claim ownership on which he built a hospital, recreational place, and a hotel.
He also alleged that some patients died in his hospital due to fear after heavily armed prison officers invaded his premises. Duang also claimed that he fears for his life as the prison officers may harm him.
“Prison officers invaded this place at 4 a.m. Is it the prison service to implement court orders? There are a lot of rebels in Juba yet there are very heavy weapons at the premises of South Sudan Hospital disguised as prison officers. There is an appeal in the Court of Appeal to stop implementation of the court order yet the prison officers came to forcefully occupy my place, he said. “The court order is being defied. There is a letter written to the interior minister to withdraw her forces but nothing is happening. The court ordered the IGP to remove the prison officers to no avail.”
“There is a question about if the people defying the court orders are rebels, above the law, or if the law does not exist in South Sudan,” Duang added.
He lamented that from 17 January, heavily armed people surrounded the disputed land and chased people from his South Sudan Hospital and South Sudan Hotel.
“The court has its officers who implement court orders. I want to inform the government that in case anything happens to me, they should know what is happening because these people could even kill me. They came with heavy arms and some people died in the hospital, sick people died because of fear,” he stated. “These people have been here for over a month. The law is clear but there is no implementation. The interior minister and her team want to take this place by force and they do not want to respect the law.”
On the issue of the compensation for the two pilots who died in a plane crash in the Pieri Area of Jonglei State, Duang said he has appealed the ruling of the court that ordered him to pay 175,000 U.S. dollars and four million South Sudanese Pounds for each of the pilots.
He demands that the laws of South Sudan be applied in the case rather than the Montreal Protocol.
“The decision of the court for the two captains was 175,000 U.S Dollars in compensation for each person and over 4 million SSP for funeral expenses. We do not have any problem with paying the compensation but do the laws of South Sudan say that someone who is killed in an accident is compensated with 175,000 dollars?” Duang asked. “How many aircraft have crashed in the world and how many cars have had accidents? For every accident that happens, there is a law that is used to charge. South Sudan has its laws against accidents whether with cars, aircraft, or anything and it has a law for compensation and there is a law of Wang Alel for Bahr el Ghazal and there are laws for Upper Nile for someone who kills another person.”
“South Supreme Airline has the right to appeal against the court ruling and we are appealing the case because in the future if South Supreme Airline does not have aircraft and another airline’s plane crashes, the same ruling of 175,000 dollars should not be applied,” Duang stressed.