Alex Bullen
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. A member of the Council of States, the country’s upper house of parliament, has claimed that he was allegedly assaulted by security agents in Juba last week.
MP Okello Ondongtoo Lawiri, who represents Eastern Equatoria State, alleged in a press release on Tuesday that he was beaten by the rogue officers, irked by the delay by parliament to pass the budget.
“I went to Hai Referendum, where I own a piece of land that workers were fencing off. I left the site and went to the market to buy food for the workers. I had $400 and took out $200 to change to local currency to use for buying items,” Okello narrated in the release.
The incident allegedly took place at the Hai Referendum in early July.
It was at this point that he said he was approached by people claiming to be officers from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The MP claimed that the officers demanded to know the source of his money.
“So, I told them they could not ask me such a question at my age; and that I work. I asked them if someone’s money was lost. They asked me who I was, so I removed my identity card and showed it to them.
“Another soldier from the Military Intelligence then grabbed my identity card, broke it into two, tossed the pieces away, and started beating me mercilessly,” he stated.
The MP claimed that he was beaten by about six men before he was taken in for questioning at a nearby police station.
“When I identified myself as an MP, one soldier even said that I should be beaten more because lawmakers are eating well and enjoying themselves while refusing to approve budgets for their (security) pay.
The lawmaker expressed concerns about the fact that MPs had been marked as potential targets by officers for failing to approve their budgets.
“Parliament does not even make budgets because that is the work of the legislature. The budget has just been brought to parliament,” he said.
“I heard that they were told at their parade at the army headquarters that MPs are sitting on their budget,” he claimed.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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