SSOA's Hon. Peter Lomude and chairperson of CDF at the national parliament is one of the MPs threatened |Photo|Courtesy

20 lawmakers at both national and state levels have received potential death or arrest threats, according to Community Empowerment for Progress Organization’s latest release.

CEPO said it has documented the threats from the period of January to March this year.

“The details of these 20 cases are as follows; 9 cases are against lawmakers at national and council of states levels. Out of the 9 cases, 3 are against female lawmakers -one female lawmaker at the national level, and two female lawmakers at the council of states level. 

“We have 11 cases for lawmakers at the state level, “said CEPO’s executive director Edmond Yakani.

The threats, according to Yakani, are mostly against both male and female lawmakers, in the Equatoria and Bahr el Ghazal regions.

“70 per cent of the 9 cases are for lawmakers that come from the regions of Equatoria and Bahr el Ghazal. They have received potential death threats or potential arrest.”

He said one of the MPs who gave consent to share his experience with the threat is Peter Lomude, the chairperson of the constituency and development fund at the national parliament.

Hon. Lomude is a member of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance or SSOA.

When contacted, Peter Lomude received threats for being outspoken on issues affecting people in Yei River County including the occupation of schools by armed forces.

“Others are messages from the area where I come from.  I have been getting information about threats. They say they want to see how I’m going to participate in the elections in my area in terms of campaigns, and all this.

“I apportion this issue of threat to some of my parliamentary roles, especially with regards to representing the people of Yei County in particular. I have been speaking on several issues, some of which are affecting the civilians in my area.

“Now what we get in return for doing our parliamentary work are threats. I received two calls from two ladies. One is called Emmanuella and then the other is called Hawa. I don’t know if it is their real names or not, and all these calls were made at night (two weeks ago).

“It is important that people should not use violence as a means of setting issues.”

Edmond Yakani went on to call for unrestricted civic and political space in the country.