Mid morning, on a sunny Saturday, Northern Division Police Station in Juba is deserted and dull save for the off-road vehicles and bikes parked at the station that outnumber the tea selling ladies and cops. A well dressed young man, probably the only one around in a light sky blue coat and a blue pair of jeans, circles between one investigation room and another. A woman in her early fifties, arrives in a white saloon car, walks to a guy at the tea place opposite the Police station, mumbling: “Asalaam Aleinkum? My name is Lorna James, a gender activist working for Voice of Change (a local civil society).Was there a VIP brought here a few minutes ago?”
Inside Investigations Room
No, responds the young man. As the two chat, a well built man walks gently to the investigation room, only to exit after a minute, walking to Lorna. “Let’s go,” he tells Lorna. “He is in the investigation room and the girl’s lawyer is on the way coming.” Responds Lorna: “I pray that Justice is done to this little girl”. Just as the two take off, a brown, slim man wearing transparent eye glasses is led from the investigation room to the detention room.
It’s not clear what has just transpired at the detention room, but a man in a light blue coat tells a cop, “Let this guy not be mishandled, or else his guys will come here in Taxar (local Arabic word for security pick up) and carry away every body.” The man walks about 30 metres towards the exist, approaching a small Toyota car whose two male occupants step out of the passenger seats as the driver searches for a parking space. He beckons them towards the investigation room as he makes his way in the opposite direction towards Agricultural Bank of South Sudan. People begin to trickle onto the station. The station is abuzz.
The Detainees
The identity of the detainee? “It’s true Rabo Waqo, the KCB managing Director is detained at the station for investigation because someone opened a case against him”, Daniel Justin the South Sudan Police Spokesman tells www.timeoftheworld.com by phone.
The woman’s lawyer Ajak Mayol Bior tells www.timeoftheworld.com that the MD is accused of sexual harassment against a former employee of the bank. ” I got involved in the case on Friday after hearing that the MD was resisting arrest through some crooks in the security organs of our country. The poor girl has no money after being sexually harassed and forced to resign. As a lawyer, I will not want to see someone evade justice because of their connection, position or money. Now the little girl is threatened and is in hiding.”
Timeoftheworld.com learned that the MD brought himself to the station. The lawyer for the MD declines comment. No details of the harassment and forced resignation are divulged. But KCB has been beset by power plays that have pitted some of the nationals against the international staff the past one month after the MD shunted aside some of the top national staff.
