Suspected security agents kidnap son of Jonglei activist
The Secretary-General of Jonglei State Workers’ Trade Union (JSWTU), Samuel Majier Loch, has raised an alarm that his 12-year-old son, Jok Majier, has gone missing after alleged security agents stormed his house on Wednesday in Bor town.
“I am Samuel Majier Loch, Secretary-General of Workers’ Trade Union in Jonglei State. I am under threat this night. My son had even been taken. I do not know where he is now, but I am in hiding, ” he said.
“Members of security came to my house and tried to take me somewhere, but I managed to escape, but my son, who is 12 years old, was taken away,” he said.
Majier said the act was about the demonstration that was scheduled to take place yesterday.
He said the security agents threatened his wife and children to reveal his whereabouts after he had already escaped.
“I got rumours early that they would come to my home, so I had to sleep outside my residence,” he explained yesterday morning.
The chairman of Jonglei Civil Society Network (JCSN) Bol Deng Bol, said Majier’s son was still missing and nobody knows whether he was scared when their home was surrounded by security or being abducted.
“That act remains condemned. Majer’s son is still missing, his father was on the run. In the day, he was coordinating demonstrations, so I suspect he did not find time to report this case to the police,” Bol said.
The Jonglei State Police Commissioner, Joseph Mayen Akoon, said he was not aware of the incident. He said that it was a member of civil servants who were arrested yesterday morning but when the civil servants demanded his release, he was set free.
When such incidents occur, people make up stories to suit their own interests, according to the police commissioner.
The civil servants resumed demonstrations on Monday after the state government decided to channel allowances paid to civil servants towards security in the state. They gave the notice to demonstrate on Wednesday (yesterday).
Salaries
Last year, the civil servants, after intensive demonstrations, were paid their full salaries of July, August and September, after President Salva Kiir Mayardit summoned the state governor, Denay Jock Chagor, and the national minister of public service, Joseph Bangasi Bakosoro.
The two leaders were ordered by the president to form a committee to investigate the causes of demonstrations and why the civil servants’ salaries were not paid.
The state government and Jonglei State Workers’ Trade Union agreed that 100 per cent of salaries would be paid.
But the nature of work allowance would be paid through the state’s local revenue.
MPs plead
Last week, the members of parliament urged President Salva Kiir Mayardit not to remove Governor Denay Jock Chagor as several people called for his relief from his position as the state governor.
Ater Bayak Kuol, a state legislature in the state Transitional Legislative Assembly (STLA), said the call was from selected individuals and could not be applauded.
“Your excellency, it’s imperative to note that the group of so-called Jonglei State elders who went to your esteemed office on the second of February 2022, demanding the removal of energetic young leader Denay Jock Chagor, are individuals of their own interests,” he said.
Kuol warned that some politicians might be behind such calls as they lobby for the position.
“If the Governor didn’t appoint their relatives in the state government, that becomes according to their interests. Those elders are just jealous of seeing a young energetic leader appointed as Governor of Jonglei State,” the MP said in the letter seen by The City Review.
“Therefore; I strongly appeal to [you] Your Excellency, the President of the Republic of South Sudan Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit, not to listen to such groups of political opportunists who call themselves Jonglei elders,” added the lawmaker.
