The authorities in Juba County have arrested seven individuals in Mangala Payam’s Bilnyang Boma for land grabbing.
According to Juba County Commissioner Emmanuel Esbon Tete, the suspects who were armed with a gun and hoes were caught intimidating locals, including the area’s sub-chief.
“Firstly, I want to commend the organized forces for rushing to this place after the information reached them,” he said. “We received information that there were people intimidating civilians and forcing them out of their houses. And when asked why they were evicting people from their houses, they said they wanted to live there,”
According to Commissioner Tete, this is not the first time such incidences have been reported in Bilnyang Boma, and besides land grabbing, there are also reports of robberies and killings.
He revealed that in just a short time, his administration registered incidences where three people were reportedly killed and four others wounded in Bilnyang.
“Within this short time, we have seen three people killed including a high-ranking people officer, four wounded also a female minister from Jonglei State who was shot at in an ambush,” the commissioner said.
According to Tete, the people who were arrested might be behind the recent killings, and there is a network of criminals who break into peoples’ homes and intimidate them.
The suspects will be investigated and taken to court.
For his part, Bilnyang Sub-Chief Andrea Benjamin said the incident started on Wednesday when he was approached by the gunmen who later ordered him to stop what he was doing.
“This morning as I was working in my house, suddenly I saw two people on a bike. I then asked if there was any problem but they said no,” he narrated. “To my surprise, I saw them making a phone call, not knowing that they were calling for their boss. So, when the boss came, he ordered us to stop.”
According to Benjamin, even after he tried to make them understand that he owned the land, the men went ahead and removed the pillars of the house he was building and warned him to stay away from the place.
He lauded the security forces for rushing to the area to arrest the situation and ensure the suspects face the full force of the law.