The newly appointed mayor of Juba City Council has blamed unscrupulous senior military officers for orchestrating the increasing cases of land grabbing in the capital city and its environs.

Speaking during his swearing-in ceremony last week in Juba, Mayor Kalisto Ladu, said his new city administration will return all the grabbed land to their rightful owners and called on those illegally occupying land to surrender them to the city council immediately.

“Anyone who grabbed land should bring back that land to the City council. Whoever builds on the land that was allocated to the police should return it. Whoever builds his house on the road calling himself a big person, my friend, the government is bigger than you. We will destroy it and cars will move on that road,” Mayor Ladu said. 

He urged the security personnel to protect the remaining open spaces in the city from land grabbers.

“Whoever grabbed a football pitch meant for children or functions, we will destroy it. We will bring it back. This is our mission because our children will be playing well and doing training. The functions that normally block roads like a wedding is because where the functions are supposed to take place have been grabbed and all those will be returned,” Moyar Ladu vowed. 

Earlier last week, the Central Equatoria State information minister, Paulino Lokudu, told Radio Tamazuj in an exclusive interview that his state is aware of the land grabbers, saying they are well armed with both light and heavy weapons.

“Those people who are grabbing the land are military generals and they are doing it in their capacity as high ranking individuals in the army and not directed by the military institution. They are using their interest and rank of the government to forcefully demarcate and grab land from the local communities,” Minister Lokudu said.

The minister further explained that a committee was sent to verify some of the land grabbing cases in Mangala but were unfortunately threatened by the illegal occupants of the lands because they were well-armed. 

Earlier this month, 45 people, including officers from the armed forces, were arrested and about 11 of them were convicted while the rest are still under investigation by the Police.

On Friday last week, the Central Equatoria State security meeting chaired by the governor resolved to take legal action against land grabbers in the state.

“There are issues of land grabbing which were reported to be acute and the meeting resolved that the security apparatus and the legal authorities take action. Whoever is found to be involved in issues of land grabbing must be arrested and prosecuted accordingly,” Moro Genesio, state minister of Local government and law enforcement said after the meeting in Juba last Friday.

Earlier this year, some chiefs under Rejaf Payam wrote an open letter dated 10 February to the governor of Central Equatoria State asking him to immediately relocate internally displaced people back to their home towns and villages.