The Imehejek Administrative Area's administrator has vowed to sue a local youth leader for making death threats against him.
“I am ready to file a lawsuit. But if things go well according to a directive to reconcile at the community level, then I will withdraw the case,” Mathew Oromo, area administrator, told Singaita FM on Thursday.
Recently, authorities in Imehejek Administrative Area held a peace conference to end interclan conflicts between the two communities of Lopit - Ibahure and Lohutok.
The two communities had been involved in hostilities,
including cattle raiding and revenge killings.
According to officials, the conference went well, with the participants coming up with several resolutions.
But the Juba-based Lopit community youth leader, Benjamin Lokudia, reportedly did not ink the deal.
Upon his return from the capital last week, Lokudia verbally attacked Oromo, threatening to kill him for approving the recommendations in his absence.
The National Security Service then took custody of the youth leader on Thursday after the administrator reported the issue. However, Oromo ordered his release two days later.
To resolve the “personal grudges”, the NSS directed the community leaders to organize a reconciliation meeting for the two men, but the community leader failed to organize the meeting.
According to Oromo, he organized a meeting on Wednesday
this week to reconcile with Lokudia, but community leaders, who were supposed
to bring Lokudia to the meeting, turned down the invitation.
“They are not cooperating to solve my issue with the person who has assaulted me. I will go ahead with the case for the law to take its course,” Oromo added.
The accusation against the youth leader falls under criminal intimidation under the South Sudan Penal Code Act 2008.
“If the threat is to cause death or grievous hurt or... to cause an offense punishable with death,----the offender, upon conviction, shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years or with a fine or with both,” reads Article 245 (2).
Several of Singaita FM’s attempts to reach Lokudia for comments were not immediately successful. But according to his wife, Alice Lokudia, he had already left the area for Juba.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of the Torit-based Lopit Community claimed that there was no need for reconciliation between Lokudia and Oromo, saying he was the one who should convene a meeting.
“No, no. If it is a community meeting at the community level, it is my responsibility as chairperson to call that community meeting so that we can sit together with our intellectuals,” Ambrose Oyet stated.
To resolve a long-standing dispute between the Pari and
Lopit communities in Lafon County, Eastern Equatoria State Governor Louis
Lobong Lojore on July 20, 2023, issued an order declaring Imehejek as an
administrative area.