By Bida Elly David
Eastern Equatoria State governor, Louis Lobong Lojore is lobbying for assistance from the national government, partners and citizens for the renovation of the State secretariat that caught fire over the week.
On Wednesday, the State Secretariat General encountered a devastating tragedy as it caught fire resulting into destruction of documentary archives that have been piled since 1994 to 2019.
In a press Statement seen by No.1 Citizen Citizen Daily Newspaper yesterday, governor Lobong Lojore, said that the fire outbreak has exempted him from accessing an office for running his daily work.
He said that an estimated budget cost of Two Million United States Dollars only( $2,000,000) was required to carry out complete renovation, furnishing and complete installation of the solar power which has been used.
“I appeal to the National government, our development partner, the UN agencies and None Government Organisations operating in the State, business Community and friends to contribute towards patriotic undertaking of restoring this great office complex in our state Capital, Torit. Let us remain focused and committed to working together towards building a peaceful, progressive and democratic Eastern Equatoria State,” Lobong said.
In addition, the governor said that the secretariat has been the symbol of hope, unity, patriotism, hard work and progress for the people of the State.
He said the people and the government of the State sacrificed much of their efforts to build and furnished the office, until its completion but it is blazed down.
“The secretariat has been using the green energy as the source of power thus we don’t really know where and how the power exceeded to the burning of the archives,” the statement said.
Lobong reiterated that the whole secretariat required complete renovation since the whole building had window glasses and the furniture got burnt leaving others in critical stage.
He also called the people of Eastern Equatoria State to contribute the little they have towards raising the State buildings.
“Since the whole secretariat has been affected as a whole, there is need to have complete renovation to change the shape into betterment. We have lost very important and historical documents in the incident, all the furniture were burnt, the glasses and the windows were destroyed. I am calling on the citizens to also contribute towards raising the building to a better shape,” he added.