The Minister of General Education in Central Equatoria State, Cirisio Zakaria Lado, on Friday, dismissed allegations that he had sold part of the land belonging to Supiri Secondary School to a private developer.
Last week, National Minister of General Education and Instruction Awut Deng Acuil threatened to sue Lado for selling land belonging to schools in Juba.
However, addressing a press conference on Friday, Lado clarified that the school land was leased to an investment company.
“As the Minister of Education, I announce that neither the Ministry nor Minister of Education sold any piece of school land. Even the former ministers or state education ministries did not sell land belonging to schools. What happened is that it is an investment that I signed on 7 January 2022 and the documents are here,” he explained “Secondly, anything that we do is according to the documents that prove that the education ministry or any other state ministry has the right to invest in its properties through the state’s finance ministry and all the documents are there.”
Minister Lado added: “If there is any Investment and the concerned ministry does not have any right to make an Investment agreement or take money, it signs a Memorandum of Understanding and sends the document to the state ministry of finance and the legal body.”
He insisted that the education ministry has the right to use its properties to get money to run its school.
“In August or September last year, the governor formed a committee after a complaint that land belonging to public schools in Juba was being sold off and that private developments were being erected on them,” Lado stated. “The committee worked for two weeks and they came up with a report that said there was no sale of school lands. The report is in the governor’s office and if I get a copy of the report I will share it with the public. I want to assure you that there was a committee formed 6 months ago and it came up with a report that there was nothing like that.”
According to an agreement obtained by this publication, the Supiri Secondary School land was leased to MCC General Trading and Investment Company for 25 years with an additional 2 years grace period starting from January 2023 to January 2025.
The deal for the lease of a 25 by 30 meters piece of land was signed on 5 April 2023 between Charles Mogga Obede, the Director of Planning and Budgeting at the Ministry of General Education, and Ibrahim Mohammed Adan, the General Manager of MCC General Trading and Investment Company.
According to the deal, the company shall pay a monthly rental fee of USD 1,200.
For his part, Luate William Alex, the Director General at the Central Equatoria State Ministry of General Education and Instruction, however, revealed that during the tenure of former Governor Emmanuel Adil Anthony, some public land was sold with the approval of the state cabinet to pay off debts it owed to tycoon Lado Lukak.
“So, regarding the sale of land, since I was appointed by former Governor Adil to date, I think, we have not sold any land. If there is any matter to do with the sale of land, it was because the state government was hard-pressed and it was through the state council of ministers that for example, we had a piece of land sold because Lado Lukak, one of our business persons paid salaries for two months before my appointment. So, Lukak wanted his money and then there was no way to pay him and that is how according to the record, the council sat to settle that matter.”