Gov’t to probe controversial allotment of passport to Lebanese businessman

JUBA – South Sudan’s ministry of interior said Friday that the department of immigration and passport is investigating how a Lebanese citizen acquired a South Sudanese passport amid public uproar on social media.

This week the country’s interior ministry became a subject of ranting on social media platforms after activists exposed Lebanese citizen with the world’s youngest country passport.

Speaking to reporters in Juba on Friday, General John Akot Malueth, the director-general of Nationality, Civil Registry, Passport & Immigration, said his office is keen at unearthing how a Lebanese businessman acquired a passport, reiterating his commitment to punish people behind the illegal authorization of a sovereign permit to aliens.

“We are investigating how he got it at the directorate of nationality because we are here to issue the passport for South Sudanese and not foreigners. We are still investigating and when we get the source of that information, we will let the public know,” Akot said.

The senior law enforcement official said what baffled him the most was how the circulating passport leaked to social media.

“We are investigating and when we get those people who did this, we will reprimand them in court,” said Akot.

He however said, foreigners are only eligible to acquire South Sudan’s citizenship after one either married a South Sudanese or spend not less than a decade in the country.

“When you stayed in South Sudan since 1956 without living in South Sudan, you will be given the nationality of South Sudan but if you have been here since 1956 and you live, you will not be given the right to acquire South Sudan,” Akot said.