The Episcopal Church of South Sudan (ECSS) on Tuesday denied forging the land title of a piece of land that is claimed by he community of Munuki Block B residential area in Juba City.
On Easter Sunday, Rev. Paul Samuel Paul, the parish priest of St. Stephen Episcopal Church in Munuki, accused officials from the Government of Central Equatoria State of demolishing church buildings in an attempt to seize the church’s land.
Responding to the church’s claim, both the community and the state government rubbished the land-grabbing accusations and instead faulted the church for forging the title of the land in question.
Addressing a press conference in Juba, Jackson George Gabriel, Assistant Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Juba, denied forging any land documents and said the land in question was given to them by the government.
“I want to say the documents that we are holding are legal documents with a land lease, everything is intact, it is our place, given to us, and there is confirmation from Munuki Payam. Munuki Payam confirmed that this land is ours and is a legal land. The paper is here that confirms that that is our place. We request that our government comply with what the ministry is doing for the people, like the papers. They have to comply with the documents because the documents come from their hands,” the Prelate said. “There is also an allegation that because we are in court, the court is ruling in our favor. There is also an allegation that the court did not mention the size and location of the land.”
“I want to assure the people that the 2024 court ruling gave us all the information of the land, and the size of the land is 95,200 square meters in Munuki Bolock B Residential Area and registered in the name of the ECSS,” he added.
He said the church leaders were shocked by the claims that their documents about the land in question were illegal, yet they were issued by the state lands ministry and judiciary. He charged that if they (documents) are illegal, then the issuing offices are illegal too.
“We recognize our Ministry of Lands, Housing and Public Utilities is a legitimate institution of the government and it cannot issue illegal documents to the people,” he said. “So, we are sorry that we are holding illegal documents. We also heard that the papers the judiciary gave us are also illegal, which means our judiciary is also illegal.”
Assistant Bishop George said that when he talked to Central Equatoria State Minister of Lands, Housing and Public Utilities, David Morbe Aquilino, the latter denied that he was authorised by Governor Augustino Jadalla to demarcate the church land. He accused the state government of using the guise of opening roads and service delivery to destroy houses on church land.
“He (Minister Morbe) even said they wanted to demarcate that place so that the people in that area can vote for them during elections, can vote for the governor. If they can vote for the governor, they can also vote for him as a minister. So he wanted to take our place to be a campaign kind of thing, which is not good for us,” he said. “As a church, we do not talk about things that are not clear, and we have the records on that. He (minister) also said in that video clip that it was supposed to be the governor going to address the people, but because of other commitments, he (Morbe) decided to come.”