Women protesting demolition of their market place in Bor town. | Courtesy.

The chairperson of Jonglei Civil Society Network has threatened to take the state government to court over the land rift between local traders and the municipal authorities.

Bol Deng Bol said some land owners, mostly women, have been forcefully evicted from their marketplace.

Bol said the contested areas include the Women Vegetable Group lands and Greenland Hotel among others.

He accuses the town mayor of allocating the land to unidentified rich investor “at the expense of the poor people.”

The activist wants the state court to block the leasing of the public land to investors.

“We did our investigation, we have known the number of lands, we have known plots that are taken away from the owners and also we are putting this together and we communicated with the legal team,” he told Eye Radio from Bor on Monday.

“We are going to court by either Thursday to seek court’s decision to stop the construction from these plots by the new investors until the rightful owners are given their dues”.

When contacted for comments, Bor town mayor Samuel Ateny denied the allegations.

He said the traders lost ownership of the land in question after their five-year agreement with the municipality expired.

“They were given five years to leave that land and after five years, they came back. If there is a legal document, why did they rent from us,” Ateny said.

“This is an open place in the market and you can know open places all over the town are not owned by individual. That is an open place of Bor Municipal Council and I know all the lands in the town.”