Western Bahr el Ghazal State Governor Emmanuel Primo Okello on Monday issued a gubernatorial order stopping the demarcations and allocation of plots in the Aweil Jedid Playground west of Wau Town.
The governor ordered that land comprising No. 424 in Block 34 revert to the youth of the area under the responsibility of the State Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.
Okello directed the state ministries of Housing, Lands and Public Utilities, Culture, Youth and Sports, Town Planning Board, and State Legal Administration to implement the order.
A cross-section of youth in the Aweil Jedid residential area welcomed the order. A local youth, Alfonsio Marko, told Radio Tamazuj that they had struggled for a long time to regain the playground in vain.
“We have now achieved what we have been struggling for, and thank all the ministries that stood with us during our struggle for our playground,” he explained. “We were left without a playground, but we went to our residential chief, who stood with us and gave us advice and pledged to support us to regain our playground.”
Another youth, Jidu Musa Muktar, said young people who had lost interest in sports due to lack of a playground can now resume activities.
“I hope that the youth who had lost interest in sports activities after losing the playground shall now return to sports because our youth nowadays are joining gangs,” he said.
For his part, Stephen Robo Musa, the state coordinator of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), welcomed the order and urged the governor to recover all the public land that was allotted to individuals illegally.
“As civil society, we welcome the governor’s order to return the playground to the youth because it was allotted to the youth as a football ground. For us, this is good news,” he said. “Our message is that let the state government work hard to recover all illegally occupied land that belongs to public institutions and return it to the rightful entities.”
Robo gave an example of railway land and facilities, Nala Playground, and Lokoloko Health Center land that have been illegally allotted to individuals over the years. He also said individuals have grabbed road reserves and narrowed roads as a result.
Interestingly, the demarcation of the playground was undertaken by the State Ministry of Lands, Housing and Public Utilities. Efforts to reach the relevant ministry officials for comment were futile.