The suspended commissioner of Lakes State’s Cueibet County, who was nominated by the SPLM-IO, Daniel Deng Mario Deng, and his family survived an attack on their home in the Sherikat suburb of Juba in the wee hours of Friday after an exchange of gunfire.
Deng told Radio Tamazuj on Friday morning that the incident happened at around 12:01 a.m. when he was asleep.
“I thought the person knocking on my door was a relative, and after consistent knocking, I felt something was fishy. I had to inform my wife to find somewhere safe in the room, and then I went and picked up my gun, and I had to cock it”, he narrated. “There were three unknown men. I did not see them, but they were knocking on three rooms, including mine.”
“My bodyguard was sleeping in the other room, but I did not call him because I knew if I did, he would rush out and they would deal with him first,” Deng added.
He said he applied his military tactics before waking up his bodyguard.
“An exchange of gunfire ensued between me and the attackers after I saw one tall guy through the window standing in the compound,” he said. “The tall man who stood in my compound had a black cloth to mask his head and mouth and was carrying a gun in his right hand. However, I did not see the person who was knocking on my door, or the one who was knocking on the kitchen door.”
“My family and I are safe, and no one was hurt during the exchange of gunfire,” Deng added.
He said the attackers were the ones who started shooting and that he responded. He added that when he was an active commissioner in Cueibet County, he did not execute anybody by firing squad.
“Before my suspension by Governor Rin Tueny, I was using special courts to try people, and nobody in the community of Cueibet County was killed by a firing squad without due process of law,” Deng disclosed.
He said that if the attack was an attempt to murder him, then the authorities have to investigate it.
“When I informed Governor Rin Tueny about the incident, he wrote to me and said sorry about the incident,” he stated.
Meanwhile, a civil society activist in Lakes State, Daniel Laat Kon, condemned the attack and urged that it be urgently investigated so that the perpetrators are held accountable.
When contacted, the acting minister of information and communication in Lakes State, William Koji Kerjok, told this publication that he is outside the state and could not comment on the incident.