The Executive Director of Juba County, Al-Fatah Mergani on Wednesday said the ongoing demolition of homes in the Joppa suburb of Luri Payam is an initiative spearheaded by the community who are demanding road access.
He denied that the County administration was involved in the demolition of houses in the area.
“The demolition exercise is an agreement reached by community members to open up roads, it is the community themselves who are doing their work of opening up roads to ease service delivery,” said Mergani during a visit to Joppa.
Mergani revealed that the affected people will be compensated.
“People in the community have agreed to open up roads, as local government our responsibility is to deliver services to citizens and opening roads alongside schools, health centers, and police stations are some of the services,” he said.
Joy Kamala, who has lived in Joppa since 2009, said the area has no roads, making it difficult for water tankers to distribute water to the community.
“I was staying here with my mother who died last year, my house has been demolished and we are suffering,” said Kamala who also added that criminal gangs that have terrorizing the residents are against opening up roads.
Taban Benet, another resident of Joppa welcomed the demolition exercise saying it will ease access and improve security in the area.
“This is about development but we need to be given time to demolish our houses because we want to use the same materials like iron sheets and timbers to build elsewhere,” said Benet.
Ezbon Pitia Francis, the Administrative Director of Luri Boma said the decision to carry out the demolition of the home comes from the community members, adding that the community in Joppa has been cut off from services over the past years
