Lakes State’s capital Rumbek this morning experienced heavy gunfire after civilians staged a protest over ongoing demolitions of houses on school land in the area.
William Koji Kirjok, the State Information Minister said the demolition process began a week ago.
He said the plan was to demolish a block of land of about 900 meters by 450 meters and another was 1.2 kilometers by 500 meters.
But according to the reports from the state, over thousands of households have been affected by the state government’s act, which has driven them to turn against the demolishing armed forces assigned to guard those conducting the exercise.
The protesters came under heavy gunfire after they were trying to insist on the demolition process, which resulted in some deaths and serious gunshot injuries, according to the report, which the Lakes State Information Minister denied.
Although there were gunshots in the locality, the information minister claimed that nobody was hurt or killed during the incident.
He said the gunshots were meant to scare and scatter those who were resisting the demolition of houses on land of Rumbek National School.
“The demolition is now a week old, but this morning they became angry and came in huge numbers and started throwing things at the security guards that were giving security to the engineers, and the security forces had no choice but to open fire to scare and scatter them,” he narrated.
Kirjok added that the gunshots heard in the morning were meant to scare and scatter those who were throwing stones, pieces of wood, and sticks at security forces supervising the demolition.
“Nobody was killed, and nobody was injured in the incident, and the demolition is ongoing normally,” he denied.
According to him, the land belongs to the school, and the state is implementing the Sixth Governor’s Forum resolution, which directed the state government to reclaim all illegally occupied government lands.
“The land belongs to Rumbek National Secondary School, and it will remain theirs as resolved in the fifth Governor’s Forum and as resolved by Lakes State Council of Ministers Resolution No. 11 Dec. 2021,” he added.
Koji warned that those who want to take laws into their hands will face consequences, adding that “those who want to take law into their hands are informed that it’s dangerous because it may have its own consequences.”
