Emmanuel Khamis, the Commissioner of Lainya County - Courtesy

Authority in Lainya County in Central Equatoria State has shut down six checkpoints out of eight existing ones in the area, the Commissioner of Lainya County has said.

According to Emmanuel Khamis, there were eight checkpoints along the main road in his County.

They were situated in Loka, Lora, Jebel Kenyi, and Limbe areas.

But the County official says he has now only left two security checkpoints at both ends of the area.

“I instructed the removal of a number of checkpoints and directed that six checkpoints be removed because within the territories of Lainya County,” Commissioner Khamis told Eye Radio.

“They were eight checkpoints, and I directed six of these checkpoints to be removed and only leave two checkpoints that will be purely security checkpoints and not for revenue collection.

Khamis says since the country is still recovering from conflict, it is necessary to maintain some for security purposes.

“These checkpoints are not going to be used to collect revenues it is purely to monitor the security situation,” he said.

“The four checkpoints that were under the ground force from Luka, Lura, Kenyi and Limbe,

“Three have been removed from Lura, Jebel Kenyi and Limbe immediately and we are only left with one security checkpoint at Loka”.

Khamis added that one of the checkpoints will be within Lainya town under the local government.

“I have also directed the removal of three checkpoints that were mounted at 58 miles and 55 miles,” said Khamis.

“We will only have one checkpoint that will be under the local government within Lainya town and this will be used for security to monitor the entry and exit of traffic within Lainya town,

The Commissioner says the removal of checkpoints will ease the movement of people and goods in the County.

Khamis added that people travelling from Juba to Yei and within Lainya County will only be stopped for security checks at two checkpoints.

In a statement seen by Eye Radio, the County Commissioner also stopped the collection of 500 pounds from motorcycles at checkpoints, which he says, hinders the freedom of movement of civilians and portrays a bad image of the SSPDF.

The County Authority stated that Lainya County’s local government will temporarily maintain revenue collection and control checkpoints in Lainya Town.

Khamis says all security organs in the County shall deploy their personnel to carry out security monitoring.