Manyo County in Upper Nile state protesting against County's Commissioner April 6, 2022 - Courtesy

Illegal revenue collectors in Manyo County of Upper Nile state have burnt the house of the Director of the Revenue Authority Unit, assaulted his wife, the County Commissioner has said.

Commissioner Peter Awon says the incident occurred on Wednesday morning, after the authorities banned unauthorized youth from collecting revenue in the area.

There has been a traditional practice of seasonal revenue collection in which the county authorities allowed unemployed youth to collect revenue on their behalf.

Since then, some youth in the area who are not government employees have been engaged in the collection of the revenue.

They have been collecting a specific amount from cattle herders who cross from Sudan to graze in Manyo County.

However, when their number increased, the county authorities decided to halt the practice.

This prompted illegal revenue collectors to stage a protest against the decision of authorities in Manyo County.

Following their protest, the commissioner says more than 17 criminals attacked the house of the director of the revenue unit.

Peter Awon says the attackers first assaulted the wife of the Director and people who were in the house.

He says the attackers took mobile phones and a gun belonging to the director.

The angry youth were armed with knives, sticks and swords.

They also set the house on fire, burned it down to ashes.

“Today [Wednesday] they [youth] caused a problem, as they burned the house of the director of the revenue unit at the Ministry of Finance and assaulted his wife. They broke house items including chairs and beds,” Commissioner Awon told Eye Radio.

“They also beat those in the house. This has turned into a criminal act that has nothing to do with hiring.

“We don’t have a job advertisement or we haven’t announced that we want to hire people, but they are used to the fact that there is a yearly season, for example, sesame season and so forth.”

The Commissioner says the criminals have not been arrested due to absence of law enforcing agents in the County.