Yakani to take powerful land thieves to East African Court of Justice

JUBA – Prominent South Sudanese activist Edmund Yakani has threatened land grabbers of lawsuit at the East African Court of Justice over theft of innocent citizens’ lands, saying he is tired of political statements chanting corrupt practices including land theft without actions.

On Thursday, Vice-President James Wani Igga who is also the chair of economic government cluster lamented corruption in public institutions, warning that corruption will ‘burry’ the country unless the leaders take concrete steps.

“Some people are bribed in order to give out land that belongs to somebody else, and these people end up shooting themselves, killing themselves. Comrades if we don’t bury corruption, corruption will bury South Sudan… yes. We have become number one most corrupt country in the World do you know that?” Igga said during the closing session of the land-draft policy workshop in Juba on Thursday.

In a statement, Yakani who is the Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) said he is tired of political statements from leaders which he said does not reflect the situation on the ground.

“CEPO is urging leaders at the presidency to address the issue of rampant corruption beyond issuing political statements. We are tired of political statements we need action for fighting corruption across the country. Some political leaders and some of their friends are the most corrupted actors abusing public authority by facilitating corruption,” Yakani said.

“The actors corrupting land administration are mostly political and security leaders in very influential public office such as state governors, military and security generals, paramount chiefs and top traders. They use their political and financial powers in grabbing lands and taking off land of innocent civilians or public lands for personal gain,” he added.

Yakani said “As of recent, it became a common practice that some politicians are using land for buying or protecting political seats and business personal use of their cash for threatening innocent civilians over their lands.”

“Land administration is one of the public sectors that some politicians and business persons took advantage of the violent situation to gain profits from it,” he added.

The prominent activist threatened to take to East African Court, saying his organization is documenting the land theft in order to build a strong case against those using state power to steal public land at the East African Court of Justice.

“Land administration or governance should be part of the transitional justice process in this ongoing political transitional process through the implementation of R-ARCSS,” Yakani said.

“Alternative we will petition East Africa Court of Justice over land grabbing or corruption especially on public lands. We are documenting all lands were deals with in corrupt manner,” he added.