Hundreds of residents of Naivasha and Salaam residential areas in Jonglei state’s capital, Bor on Friday took to the streets to protest against what they described as a plot to grab their land by senior government and military officials.
The protestors presented a petition to the office of Governor Philip Aguer Panyang on the matter.
Monica Adut Dau, a resident of Naivasha, told Radio Tamazuj that there are senior government officials and military officers asking them to vacate their plots of land claiming it has been given to them.
Adut further said they have inhabited that piece of land for more than two decades and have no other land to relocate to.
Several protestors angrily said they would fight to retain their plots of land. “This is our right, the plot that we are in, it was my father’s plot since 1956. I was born in this plot and married my wife and I gave birth to my three children in the same plot and it has been given to a general saying I should relocate to the bush,” a resident called Majok Madol said.
Meanwhile, Philip Thon Nyok, a Member of Parliament in Bor town, urged the residents of the two areas to remain calm as the government tries to look into the matter.
According to him, an eleven-member committee headed by the state minister of physical infrastructure has been formed to look into the issue.
Abel Manyok Ajak, state minister of physical infrastructure, called on the protestors to wait for the committee’s outcome.
Manyok neither denied nor confirmed whether land in Naivasha and Hai salaam has been allotted to senior government and military officials.