The Government of Central Equatoria State has successfully recovered a piece of land owned by the government illegally occupied by squatters, an official said.
Addressing journalists on Tuesday after a demolition exercise in Juba City’s Kator Payam, Central Equatoria State Minister of Roads and Bridges Mawa Moses said: “This land was previously given to the Eastern Equatoria State Coordination office, however, it was later illegally occupied.”
Mawa said after this demolition, Central Equatoria State will formally hand back the land to Eastern Equatoria State.
“Today (Tuesday), we are here in Kator Block and the entire demolition team headed by the state’s security advisor and all the delegation members are here and we have again successfully demolished illegal structures in a government area,” he said. “This is government land that was given to the Government of Eastern Equatoria State by the Government of Central Equatorial State to use as their coordination office in Juba.”
“We will hand it over to the administration of Eastern Equatorial State so that they can immediately develop this place,” Minister Mawa added.
This demolition is part of the state government’s plan to eject squatters who illegally occupied public lands such as schools, graveyards, playgrounds, and churches.
On Monday, the committee demolished illegal structures near Juba Girls Secondary School, insisting that the structures were constructed illegally. The minister insisted that the demolitions would continue and advised illegal occupants and squatters on government lands to vacate peacefully before being forcefully evicted.
“We have found a lot of squatters who are unproductive labor. They are supposed to be doing something else. We have demolished all the structures from here and they have to go to where they came from,” he stated. “Our mission will continue. We have also demolished illegal structures on the roadsides. We will continue with the exercise until we are sure that all public land is recovered and handed over to the rightful owners or the rightful government institutions.”