By Bida Elly David
The government of Central Equatoria State has denied accusations labeled against them by the University of Juba over the lease of land to private investors or individuals saying that they never encroached into any legal land ownership.
This came following accusations made by the administration of the University of Juba early this week claiming that the State authorities had deployed organized forces to harass and expel them off the plot of land belonging to the University administration.
Recently, the Vice Chancellor for the University of Juba, Professor John Akec accused Central Equatoria State government for having permitted some individuals to execute private development project on a long processed land by the University.
He said that they wrote a letter through the IGP but they turned deaf ears unto the encyclical and continued deploying forces to harass people.
Speaking to the media yesterday, Andruga Mabe Saverio, the State Minister of Information reiterated that the state government has never participated in violating issues concerning official land acquisition processes by any party.
He said what the University did was a political tool used as a mechanism to tarnish the reputation of Central Equatoria State government alongside its leadership.
“We came across a resolution number two of the University of Juba senate meeting number 221 which labeled hostile allegation against the government of Central Equatoria State that it has issued illegal land titles to well-placed individuals on a piece of land belonging to the University of Juba,” Mabe said.
“This is simply a well calculated misunderstanding to tarnish the good image of the state government so that it is used as a political tool by opponents who are desperately longing for such opportunities to bring the leadership of Central Equatoria State into limit,” he added.
The information minister further criticized the allegations made by the administration of the University of Juba and underscored their respect of the decisions made by the government of Central Equatorial State over addressing sensitive matters.
Minister Mabe stressed that they never deprived any citizen or institution from legal acquisition of land rather urged them to follow a right procedure of ownership for the purpose of legality and accountability.
“As a government, we did not encroach into any lawful land ownership,” he asserted.
“We uphold and respect decisions duly certified by the government of Central Equatoria State that preceded us.”
“The state government under the leadership of H.E Emmanuel Adil Anthony has never violated any regulation or guidelines on issues related to official land acquisition process and we did not at all deprive people of their lawful ownership of land in the state,” he stated.
The State information minister emphasized that they usually encourage the citizens and the institutions who wish to acquire land to follow legal procedures so that they can acquire the land lawfully.