The police in Unity State’s Leer County on Tuesday released a youth union chairperson and a former county relief director who were detained last Saturday in connection with a letter that gave a United Nations agency 72 hours to leave the area.
Local authorities said the move was made without their approval.
The duo was identified as Tang Gatgong, the chairperson of the Youth Union, and Paulino Kueh Mawich, the former director of the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC).
Brigadier Samuel Machul, the Director General of Police in Leer County, confirmed the release of two men after being investigated on why they authored statements on social media and through an official letter, respectively. He explained that the two have different cases.
“The youth union chairperson was arrested because of threatening the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), and the former RRC director was arrested for accusing the current RRC director and acting commissioner of Leer County of threatening UNOPS,” he explained. “We have freed them after investigations, and they are in their homes. We have transferred their cases to the county administration for resolution because they are both officials here in Leer County.”
“When a case happens among local officials, it is the county administration to solve it, not the police,” Brigadier Machul added.
Meanwhile, Paulino Kueh Mawich, the former RRC director, confirmed their release from police detention.
“Yes, we were held for exactly 72 hours, but we are now free. I was released on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. I was arrested for a deformed case because what I posted on my Facebook page was a condemnation of the threat against the UN agency,” he explained. “I was the former RRC director in Leer County, and I know the policy of UN agencies and Humanitarian partners.”
He said he still condemns the actions taken by the current RRC director and acting commissioner of Leer County.