Africa-Press – South-Sudan. South Sudan businessman and head of the country’s business community Ayii Duang Ayii has said that his life is in danger after national prisons officers fired shots at him during a dispute over plots of land in Juba today.
Ayii has been in a legal battle with the prisons service for almost four months over plots in the African Park, South Sudan Hotel 1, and South Sudan Modern Medical Hospital located in Juba town.
The incident began today morning when a disagreement between prison services officers under the command of a prisons police major-general identified only as “Bol” led to a shootout that shocked patients and citizens in the area.
Eyewitnesses say they were terrified after hearing gun shots. No injuries were reported.
According to Ayii, the major-general wanted to terminate his life.
“Major-General said I should go to him at the African Park and after I entered, he ordered that the gate be closed and he also instructed the prisons officers/soldiers to shoot me, that how it all started,” he told journalists.
He alleges that prison service officers went to the hospital at 5 a.m., chased patients out of wards, and advised them to go to Juba Teaching Hospital for further treatment.
Ayii says he went to investigate whether the prisons service had an eviction document: “I want to find out why he is chasing the sick away and whether it is an order from Interior, IGP or court.”
“He [Maj-Gen] ordered that I must be shot dead but the soldiers don’t want to kill – they only shoot on the ground or in the air,” he alleged. “That angered him [Maj-Gen] to the extent that he wanted to snatch a gun from one soldier to shoot me himself, but the soldier ran away.”
“Now, I will be forced to close down the hospital. I will shut down South Sudan Modern Medical Hospital, take my doctors, and send away patients because these people want to kill us,”
Ayii emphasizes that he owns the plot where the hotel and hospital were built, having procured it from Jamal Al-Faki, who was sold the plots by the national prisons service.
“This is my place, I own the buildings, assets but it is now taken by force. What will I do – what will I do? I better run for my life with doctors and leave patients with prisons service to take responsibility,”
When contacted by Sudans Post, police spokesperson Major-Gen. Daniel Justine confirmed the incident but directed this reporter to crosscheck with the police service.
“I have learnt that is the problem between the prisons and Ayii, but the spokesperson of the prisons can give you more details,” said Justine.
However, efforts to reach Maj-Gen Redento Tagun, the spokesman for the South Sudan National Prisons Services, remained unsuccessful at the time of publication, as his known contact was off.
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