By Emelda Siama John
The Central Equatoria State Security Committee has issued a warning regarding a surge in drug abuse among young children and the involvement of government officials in land-grabbing activities this week.
During its weekly meeting, chaired by Governor Rabi Mujung Emmanuel, the committee discussed several pressing issues affecting the state. Among these, the committee highlighted the increasing problem of land grabbing by some government officials and the alarming rise in drug abuse, particularly among youth.
Speaking to the media after the meeting at the state Secretariat, Leon Abe Brown, Minister of Local Government and Law Enforcement Agency, emphasized the severity of drug-related issues affecting young children.
He stated, “Involvement of some dignitaries into land grabbing which has become a problem. This is a problem now here to sort issues of a land like showing, it hinders the process. There is a lot of influx of drugs in which in a week’s time we get suicide cases are happening a lot and young children are all found in that suicide attempts or suicide cases. In each of the markets we found that there is a lot of urgencies of collections of money from the traders, a lot of urgencies and of course we know in a law and the authorised people to collect rates are the rate collectors which are identified by the institutions that have employed them and deployed them to collect rates and channel it to the government system. And asking ourselves as an institution sort of government to know exactly who you have assigned.”
The committee’s statements underscore the urgent need for concerted efforts to address drug abuse among youth and curb illegal land activities that threaten the stability and security of Central Equatoria State.