WES governor says ‘politicians’ vying for his seat behind killing of civilians in Tambura

JUBA – The governor of Western Equatoria, Alfred Futuyo, who was appointed on the ticket of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), has accused unnamed politicians from the state of standing behind the killing and violence that has been ongoing in Tambura County of Western Equatoria state for months.

Speaking during a visit to Ibba County in Western Equatoria state on Wednesday along with Vice-President Hussein Abdelbaggi, Futuyo said some politicians he didn’t name had been mobilizing people in South Sudan’s capital Juba to go for civilian killings in Tambura County just to prove his administration incapable.

“The politicians are mobilizing people in Juba to come and kill innocent people just because of this one seat of governorship, why don’t you just wait for your chance,” Futuyo said at Ibba County on Wednesday.

“Politicians in Juba armed civilians with guns and sent them here to kill people here in our state, what have we done to you to deserve this? What wrong have we done to people for them to slaughter with knives?” the governor asked.

“And if the national government asks them of what is happening, they will go to the president and claim that the governor is killing people. We don’t kill people and if somebody kills some and we manage to arrest them, the following day they airlift the person to Juba.”

He claimed that the state government arrested three people suspected of killing people in Ibba County and later bailed them out with a lot of money and sent them to Yambio to kill people there.

“They pay prisoners who are capable of killing and send them to Yambio to kill anyone to fail the state government and we have evidence as we speak, we know that person who pays people to go and kill,” he said.

In July this year, the governor of Western Equatoria accused Jemma Nunu Kumba, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and SPLM acting Secretary-General, and Patrick Raphael Zamoi, the former governor of the defunct Tombura state, an allegation which was denied.