Mabior Garang says he is being intimidated by Angelina Teny’s office

JUBA – Senior member of South Sudan’s main armed opposition group and former deputy minister of interior, Mabior Garang De Mabior, is saying that he is being intimidated by defense minister Angelina Teny’s office for refusing to punish an opposition official who had called for Mrs. Teny’s resignation over Moroto fighting.

Following continued attacks by SSPDF against SPLA-IO positions in Central Equatoria state’s Moroto, several SPLM-IO members and activists took to social media to denounced Teny’s silence over the matter with some calling for her resignation.

What happened?

Earlier on Friday, Kalany Mamuon, SPLM-IO social media director, demanded in a Facebook social media post, the resignation of defense minister Angelina Teny accusing her of being the problem that is being faced by the SPLA-IO forces in light of continued government attacks.

“Angelina Teny should resign, she is one of the problems facing our Military, SPLA-(IO),” Kalany wrote, adding in anther post: “SPLA-(IO) shall prevail, the enemy within shall be defeated by us.”

Later on, several IO activists dived in to Facebook and take on Kalany with some demanding apology for demanding Teny’s resignation.

In a statement this afternoon, SPLM-IO Chairperson of National Committee for Information and Public Relations, Mabior Garang De Mabior, said he has been intimidated by one of the aides of the defense minister who he said demanded from him to take punitive measures against Kalany.

“On the 12th of December I received a missed call, followed by a message from Matthew Debuol, who goes by the username Troika on Telegram. He urged me to contact him directly, which I did later on the same day. I was taken aback since I have never received a call from this Comrade. To my surprise, he was calling me regarding the now infamous Facebook post by Comrade Kalany Mamuon in which he criticized the Hon. Minister of Defense, Mama Angelina,” Garang said in the statement that has been extended to Sudans Post.

“He went on to – in a passive aggressive manner – intimidate me by giving me a lecture on party regulations and procedures. He wanted me to take disciplinary action against Comrade Kalany, whom he had previously threatened and failed,” he added, wondering “with which authority he was calling me and giving me directives.”

However, Mabior said he declined to punished Kalany because he was expressing “a personal opinion expressed on social media and not an official SPLM/SPLA (IO) position.”

“It is the right of any citizen to criticise and hold accountable any constitutional post holder. While what Comrade Kalany said may have been insensitive, it was accurate. It is for the same reason we criticise the President, that we can criticise any Minister; it comes with the territory, as it were.

“It is for this reason that I resigned as the Deputy Minister of Interior. In the absence of security arrangements, it was a set up for failure.”