SPLM-IO fires back at Makuei for saying Upper Nile conference will decide governor

JUBA – South Sudan’s SPLM-IO, led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny, has fired back at information minister and government spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth for saying that planned conference of the Upper Nile state communities which will take place in Juba next year will decide who will be the governor of the oil-rich state.

Yesterday, Makuei said during an interview with Sudans Post that the people of Upper Nile state during the conference “will decide and tell us if they like Olony or not. But the ultimate decision maker are the people of Upper Nile state, if they said yes to Olony, the President Salva has no any objection, but the truth is we can’t foretell the outcome.”

However, in an exclusive interview with Sudans Post later in the evening, SPLM-IO director of information and public relations, Puok Both Baluang, disputed Makuei’s claims and said the conference is meant to reconcile the people of Upper Nile state who have saw enmity among themselves during the last years of civil wars.

“What Makuei said is not true,” Baluang said. “this conference is for how to harmonize the people and the communities of Upper Nile state and the appointment of General Johnson Olony does not depend on this.”

The senior opposition official further reiterated the main armed opposition group’s rights under the revitalized  peace agreement which stipulates that the group shall be responsible for selecting its nominees to positions allocated to it under the 2018 peace agreement pointing out that Upper Nile state communities in the SPLM-IO have also endorsed General Olony.

“The SPLM/SPLA (IO) is a part to the revitalized peace agreement that has the right to select a nominee and the communities of Upper Nile in the SPLM-IO have stand firmed and confirmed that they are for the nomination of General Johnson Olony to be the governor of Upper Nile state,” he said.

“So, there shouldn’t be any link regarding the appointment of General Olony with this conference because the conference is only for reconciliation it is mentioned in that press statement made by the minister in the office of the president,” he further added.