Alleged land-grabbers paraded after their arrest in weekend crackdown|Couresy

At least12 individuals suspected of illegally demarcating lands in the Jebel Timan area in Juba County have bee arrested, according to Commissioner Emmanuel Tete.

He said the arrest followed reports about individuals who claimed to be government workers, threatening land owners especially women who want to build on their rightful plots.

He adds that the suspects were also involved extorting 2,000 to 3000 US dollars in illegal building permits from land owners in the area.

“What you see here is a group of criminals doing illegal demarcation and they claim to be from the government and causing insecurity in the areas.

“They threaten people from building in their plots especially women, and they threaten people to pay them $2,000 to $3,000, the least person can be asked to pay SSP. 5 million ssp and all the money is going to their pockets.

“We received a lot of reports, and when we investigated, we discovered that they are a group of land grabbers and thank God we arrested them.

According to Tete, the individuals were arrested on Friday while in their offices in Kapuri block 7.

A woman who identified herself as only Mary testified being stopped from building on her plot by the suspects who told her documents were not original.

“I bought a land from my brother and I obtained original documents from Ministry of Housing , and after buying I made sure that I changed the documents to my name and everything went well.

“What I was left with, was to go to the Payam and get a building permit. But before that I send my sister to mark the plot before I bring the building material.

‘When I sent my sister there, she was told we cannot do anything before meeting them in their office. They also said our documents from housing were not original saying theirs are original.”