By Hou Akot Hou
Police in Udhum Payam of Aweil West County, Northern Bahr El Ghazal State, are holding a 29-year-old man accused of having set fire to five grass-thatched tukuls over the weekend at his residence in Udhum village.
The suspect is identified as Pan-Kot Bol, who is said to have been angered by his family members.
An eyewitness alleged that he (the suspect) had a serious squabble with his wife and some of his parents.
The police officer in the area, Atak Wol Kiir, said the incident took the residents by surprise on Saturday during a market day.
He said people from the market rushed to rescue the burning properties as the house was near the market, but to no avail.
Wol stated that the accused lit the fire on five grass-thatched houses, including a big barn where cows are kept, and there was no way to extinguish one of them as the fire consumed them all.
He advised members of the public to always seek better avenues of settling their disagreements than to go too destructive as such.
“I want to appeal to our people in the state and beyond because conflict does arise at any time. But seek better methods of solving them than burning and killing a person,” he appealed.
“As a parent, please always talk with children to get a remedy for the situation that causes disagreement in the family,” he continued.
Wol noted that people were shocked upon learning about the fire that gutted all the houses due to the young man’s hot temperament.
He questions why energetic men always turn against their parents and families rather than being resilient to solve the problems that the poor are faced with.