By Taban Tom Henry
The Jonglei State governor Denay Jok Chagor has denied that cattle herders from Jonglei are causing insecurity along Juba-Nimule Highway.
Chagor stated that there has been looting, killing and stopping of vehicles along the roads terming them as criminals but not cattle herders from Jonglei.
“I don’t unnecessarily agree that the cattle keepers from Jonglei state are the ones causing insecurity along Juba Nimule Road because there has been looting, killing and stopping of vehicles along the roads, these are criminals and for somebody to say that any criminal along that area is somebody who is a cattle herder from Jonglei what evidence do we have that these are the people for example” he said.
Chagor added that they are recalling all the people from Jonglei to go back plus their cattle from Eastern and Central Equatoria.
He continued that if it is about looting, right here in Juba criminals are their adding that if you see a criminal who broke into your house will you say this person is from Central Equatoria, no, a criminal is a criminal.
“For you to generalize a criminal on one side without evidence is not correct. when it comes to the issue of cattle, we are calling on the cattle herders to come back to Jonglei just like the people from Eastern and Central Equatoria, myself I am asking for that as well that they had to go back but we do not condone that any criminal who committed a crime somewhere somehow that person is from Jonglei” Chagor added.
The Jonglei state governor stated that “if you call a group or a community and tell them move from here to there is not a one-day solution even right here in Central Equatoria, where they not having issues with people who have taken people’s houses, didn’t the President make a resolution that anybody who has taken somebody’s land should move out of that but have they moved out successfully”.
Meanwhile the Central Equatoria State governor Emmanuel Adil Anthony said they had initial influx of cattle from the neighbouring state of Bahr el Ghazal, Terekeka County and Jonglei state which has been confirmed by the Presidential Order No. 23 2017 which says all the cattle from Terekeka, Jonglei State should return to their area of origin.
“I am saying that, these are the cattle herders from Jonglei State not the people from Jonglei of which some of them, not all have perpetuated crimes and caused havocs. We have lots of lives that are lost and we are talking about not less than 50 people, we are talking about cattle that are roaming of which I physically witnessed and the Council of States in one of its resolutions summoned the three governors that was the governor of Eastern, Central and Jonglei state in which they resolved that let us remove cattle herders of Jonglei state” Adil said.
Adil hinted that he officially addressed the issue of cattle to the governor of Jonglei state, that they should cooperate to make sure that these cattle herders go to their areas of origin, saying that they are not removing individuals and not targeting people.
He stated that as South Sudanese they should peacefully co-exist.
“Actually, this is the spirit of our unity, lets respect each other, the cattle are good, equally the farmers are good they are producing food, can we unveil a platform where two of them can co-exist and one way to co-exist is that each of them should stay but conduct their activities differently.
