By William Madouk
Chairperson of the South Sudan Bar Association and legal advisor for the Butchers Union, Barrister James Al-Taib, said the Central Equatoria State (CES) minister of Animal Resources, Fisheries, and Tourism overstepped his mandate for dissolving the Butchers Union.
Mr. Al-Taib described the decision by the CES minister of Animal Resources in dissolving the union as ‘abuse of power’ taken by a few individuals within the state government.
He faulted Minister, Alex Lotiyu Elia for not notifying the leadership of the Butchers Union.
“They [the ministry] did not serve the copy to the concerned people [the Butchers Union] who were affected or who are concerned by these two ministerial orders,” said Al-Taib.
“It took them by surprise that they just found people armed coming around them, telling them to close down their offices and hand the keys to the armed group. People who are not even the police. These are the army,” he added.
The defending lawyer stated that his effort to explain to the armed men that the ministerial order did not direct the closure of the office but the dissolution of the complainant fell on deaf ears.
“I went to the High Court of Central Equatorial State and tabled a petition before the High Court in accordance with Section 290, paragraph 1 of the Civil Procedure Act 2007 against the Ministry of Animal Resources, Fisheries, and Tourism,” he explained.
Advocate Al-Taib added that the court issued an injunction order nullifying the closure of Butchers’ Union office, but the authority resisted.
“We took the order from the court and served the concerned authority with it, and the concerned authorities ignored the order of the court and said this is not applicable to them and they must go ahead and implement their order,” he lamented.
“Whoever abuses the law of the country is abusing even the president, because the president is the one who has sent these laws into existence.” He continued,
According to the CES Butchers Union defending lawyer, there is no way the minister of animal resources should stay in power for even another single day.
He cited that if the situation remains, then the state authority must waive his immunity to allow him to face the court.
“We are going to step in now by launching a criminal case against the two individuals and asking the government to remove their immunity immediately so that the criminal court will have to challenge them,” Al-Taib disclosed.
“All the people of South Sudan should know that there are wrong people in the government, wrong people putting the right shoe on their feet, but their minds are wrong,” he noted.
On January 25, the CES minister of Animal Resources, Fisheries, and Tourism, Alex Lotiyu Elia, issued a ministerial order for the dissolution of the state Butchers Union and its branch office and the setup of steering leadership.