KAJO-KEJI – Military intelligence officers have apprehended two officials from Central Equatoria State Ministry of Forestry in connection with issuing permits for illegal loggers in Kajo-Keji County.
Kajo-Keji commissioner Jackson John Wani narrated that the two men were detained by military intelligence officers for violating recent orders banning logging in the border town.
“It is true that two suspects were arrested for involvement in illegal logging, first of all arrested by military intelligent officers before being handed over to the police the following morning,” the commissioner said.
Wani declined to reveal the names of the accused public officials and only identifies them as technocrats within the ministry.
He said if credible evident of wrongdoing is found, the officials will be produced in court to answer for their crimes.
“As I speak now, they are in police custody awaiting investigation. You know they are not people outside the government, they are government officials working with the state ministry of forestry. There was a ban on logging.”
“But what we discovered was that they continued giving out permits for logging and then we found there were a lot of companies doing logging in the bush. When we questioned, we found out that the documents were issued by them.”
The commissioner said the government is committed to ending illegal logging and deforestation activities to protect the environment