The relatives of Santino Mdut, a Luo youth leader in Western Bahr el Ghazal State, who was arrested last Thursday by men in plain clothes have expressed concerns about his whereabouts.
For the last few months, Luo youth from Jur River County have been agitating against the government’s decision to name the newly constructed bridge over Jur River in Wau the Clement Mboro Bridge, in honor of the late veteran politician Clement Mboro who hailed from Way.
Last week, the Luo Youth Union in Western Bahr el Ghazal State, for which Madut is a deputy chairperson, handed a petition rejecting the choice of name of the bridge to the speaker of the Western Bahr el Ghazal State Legislative Assembly who they asked to address their grievances within 72 hours.
However, Madut is said to have been arrested shortly after handing over the petition and has not been seen since.
Abraham Urayo, an in-law of Santino Madut, told Radio Tamazuj on Monday that they have visited several detention facilities in Wau but have not located the youth leader.
“Madut is still under arrest and we do not know his whereabouts, we tried our best by cooperating with others to help us search for him at all detention cells in Wau town but all efforts have failed,” he said.
For his part, the acting police commissioner in Western Bahr el Ghazal State, Major General James Simon Yasi, said Madut was arrested by the National Security Service (NSS) last Thursday after a group of youth went and set the house of the speaker of the Western Bahr el Ghazal State Assembly on fire.
“A problem happened in Wau which was connected with the renaming of a bridge from Jur River Bridge to Clement Mboro Bridge as proposed by authorities in Juba. The Luo youth have handed their petition of rejection to Western Bahr el Ghazal State Assembly Speaker Mohammedein Mohammed and threatened to take any action after 72 hours,” he explained. “Before the end of the 72-hour-ultimatum, the youth stormed the speaker’s house and burned down his shelter while the speaker was away. Following the incident, the NSS took action by apprehending Santino Madut to carry out more investigations to find out if Madut is linked to the arsonists.”
Meanwhile, the leader of the Wau Youth Union, David Lawrence, condemned the illegal arrest of Madut and urged the authorities to hand the accused to the police so that he can be arraigned in court or set him free.
“Madut is supposed to be held by the police which is responsible for handling criminal cases. If he is taken to court and found guilty then he can be sentenced otherwise he should be set free because he has a family that depends on him,” he said.