Barely a month after unknown assailants attacked Rumbek Diocese Bishop-Elect Fr Christian Carlassare at his residence, another cleric in Torit became a victim of heinous attacks targeting men of God.
The slain cleric was a pastor attached to the African Inland Church (A.I.C) who was shot by unknown gunmen at his home in Torit in Eastern Equatoria State, last week Tuesday.
A fellow cleric, Pastor James Lagos, who is from the same denomination told City Review that Pastor Peter Lokai was shot in the chest and died shortly upon arrival at Torit Civil Hospital.
“It is true a pastor was shot dead at his house at around 1:00 a.m. on Tuesday by unknown people,” Lagos said.
While the reasons behind his shooting remained unclear, the circumstances of his attack mirrored a plight of an oblivious target that fell in the arms of heartless and blood thirsty criminals.
Trickery
Lagos recounted how two assailants had a lengthy conversation in Lotuko dialect and then lured the cleric out of his room.
“They called him by his name and even talked in Lotuko language. They had a long conversation for over 10-15 minutes convincing him to come out and as he opened the door, immediately he was shot,” he lamented.
Pastor Lagos described the late Lokai as a kind personality who never had any grudges with any person.
He said the slain pastor was in charge of A.I.C district council in Torit and was the host of the General Assembly meeting taking place in the area. He added the incident happened at a time when the church was holding a general conference.
“In regards to the on-going conference, this is an isolated case; it has nothing to do with the general assembly meeting and had nothing with what is going on in the church,” Lagos said.
However, Pastor Lagos revealed that the conference was suspended for a day to allow delegates of the event to attend to the burial of the deceased.
Eastern Equatoria State Police Spokesperson Major Justin Kleopus said the identity of the suspected criminals is yet to be known saying adding that the security intelligence is on intensive search to find the whereabouts of the culprits.
“The [report on] the shooting of the African In-land Church pastor came to us and we have sent police to the area of the scene. The operation team got the pastor while still alive and he was taken to the hospital but after only 30 minutes he passed away,” Maj. Kleopus explained.
“At the moment, investigations are on-going. We together with CID and the national security are following up to find out where those criminals are and up to now there is still no full information about this case,” he added.
South Sudan has witnessed cases of intimidating and targeted killing on pastors and bishops within the last passed months. Last month a Catholic Bishop Elect of Rumbek Diocese was shot in his two legs on April 26 at his residence.
Also, an African Inland Church pastor narrowly escaped death while his son was injured by armed men over the issue of the Church land dispute in Juba. Recently, the house of Bishop Matthew Remijio Adam, a Catholic Bishop of Wau, was broken into by unknown robbers who stole about $ 20,000 including the personal belongings of the bishop, local media reported.