The First Deputy Speaker of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA), Nathaniel Oyet Perino, has said the absence of leadership in Jonglei State has made the state vulnerable to insecurity.
Oyet, who was speaking on Tuesday during the parliamentary session where Jonglei State Governor Denay Chagor and GPAA Chief Administrator Lokale Ameet appeared, said criminals are operating freely in Jonglei State because of the absence of the leadership.
Taking a snipe at Governor Chagor, the first deputy speaker alleged that credible sources reported that some leaders in Jonglei State do not reside in the state but rather in Juba, Nairobi, or the United States of America.
“We also understand from credible sources that some of the authorities, the leaders of Jonglei, do not stay in their workstations. They stay in Juba. And they move in between Juba and Nairobi and or Juba and Washington in America and so on,” Oyet stated.
“That is why there is this criminal privilege going on in the state and it has not been attended to. Every public servant has to be in their station.”
He also claimed that the Jonglei State government operates without a budget, questioning how security would be addressed without a budget in place.
“We also learned that the government in Jonglei runs without a budget. So, what happened to the salaries of the organized forces? What happens to the salaries of civil servants and so on? That means people are reluctant to do their work or they have gone to do other business to take care of themselves,” the deputy speaker said. “We need a viable government in the state (Jonglei) which can take care of the security agencies and also oversee their duties.”
Oyet’s sentiments were backed by the chairperson of the TNLS’s information committee, John Agany, who said the leadership in Jonglei has failed.
“In the last census, by the way, Jonglei was leading in the whole of South Sudan because the population of Aweil migrated to Jonglei,” he said.
Agany said there is no reason for the huge population of Jonglei to be subjected to suffering yet there is a state government.