Juba Commissioner Charles Joseph Wani speaks on Eye Radio's Dawn Show. July 7, 2023. | Photo: Awan Moses/Eye Radio

The Commissioner of Juba County has accused “senior government officials” of participating in an illegal scheme to acquire land from imposters in Bilinyang Boma of Mangala Payam.

Charles Joseph Wani’s remarks come a day after Bilinyang Chief Pio Tombe Tongun accused unknown landgrabbers of interfering with his administration and claimed to have given land to displaced persons.

According to Tombe, illegal groups have forged a stamp and are using it to allocate land in the area.

They have allegedly threatened the local authorities with firearms for speaking out against their operation.

Reacting to the matter, Commissioner Wani accused senior officers in the government – whom he describes as criminals – of being behind the incident. The official did not, however, name names.

“There are a lot of criminals these days and as a matter of fact, those criminals, most of them, you will find them as senior officers in government,” Wani said.

He cautioned against illegal eviction and acquisition of demarcated lands, adding the government will retrieve them.

“The individual senior officers in the government are the ones doing this illegal demarcation, oppressing the indigenous and going to the farms of the people, and beginning to demarcate and sell land.”

“It is not gone, as a Commissioner of Juba, we cannot leave anything for the criminal. There must be a way to retain that land back to the owner. I am telling those who are settling in the place to refrain and let allow the government work to go.”

Early this year, Central Equatoria State governor said land grabbing is one of the major security concerns facing Juba and the surrounding areas.

In 2021, President Salva Kiir constituted a 12-member committee tasked to investigate the Garbo village incident and address the issue of rampant land grabbing around Juba city.

But there has been no end to land-grabbling activities in the county.