Gov’t says Lual Akok acted in self-defense during Sherikat incident

JUBA – Former and slain South Sudan army officer and President Salva Kiir’s cousin Lieutenant Colonel Lual Akok’s bodyguards opened fire after they were attacked by civilians armed with sticks and machetes during Sherikat incident in June, a government finding released this afternoon has concluded.

The government came to the conclusion following a three-months investigation of the Sherikat incident which killed a total number of around nine people in Juba on June 3, 2020 over a dispute between Lual and civilians over a piece of land.

The minister in the office of the president Nhial Deng Nhial and the minister of justice made public the report during a news conference held this afternoon at the premise of the ministry of justice and constitutional affairs in Juba.

“On the 3, June, Lieutenant Colonel Lual Akok went to Gumbo Sherikat to sit down with them to try to find a solution. But what transpired is that Lual Akok found people armed with sticks and machetes busy destroying properties and attacked him,” Nhial said while reading a press statement.

“Then those people attacked Lual and hit him in his forehead and in the back. Lual then fall down and became unconscious. Upon seeing Lual collapse, his bodyguards took positions and opened fire,” Nhial told journalists.

He said the incident on that day let to the killing of  six people including Lual himself.

“The incident then claimed the lives of six persons including Lual Akok himself. Eight people were injured and then demonstrations broke out. The demonstrated looted Lual Akok’s properties and they also destroyed and disrupted public traffic and generally they disrupted the lives of others,” Nhial further said.

The senior government official however said the situation could have been avoid because the matter had been referred to the police a long time earlier. He said had the authorities acted and take the necessary steps to resolve the matter, the lives lost could have been avoided.