March 22, 2013 (RUMBEK) – South Sudan's ruling party has dismissed their Director for Admin and Finance in Lakes state, Andrew Macuor Romdhel, accusing him of not cooperating with the party's acting secretary in the state, Mabor Ater Dhuol.
After Romdhel was dismissed on Wednesday the contents of his office were immediately seized by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS).
The former official in Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) is suspected to have leaked to the press a list of 38 SPLM members who have put themselves forward for positions in an expected reshuffle among the state's advisors, ministers and commissioners by the new caretaker Governor.
Romdhel strongly denies the charges and has accused Mabor Ater Dhuol of dismissing anyone who objected to his hotly contentious appointment as the Lakes state acting secretary of the SPLM last month.
“I have not send any document that indicated 38 members of SPLM seeking political position, my work is to admin things related to money and administrative relative issue”, Romdhel told Sudan Tribune.
There has been unrest within the SPLM in Lakes state since Dhuol's controversial appointment, which was objected to my many in SPLM State Liberation Council (SLC).
However, the SPLM's state chairperson Daniel Awet Akot resisted the demands and imposed Dhuol, whose swearing in ceremony in February was boycotted by many senior SPLM officials who complained that the process of his selection was unconstitutional.
Daniel Awet Akot, who is a member of the SPLM's political bureau and is the Deputy Speaker of South Sudan National Legislative Assembly, failed in his attempt to be the SPLM's candidate for Governor in the 2010 general elections.
Some Lakes state politicians accuse Awet of seeking to avenge those who voted against his selection in 2010 by imposing Mabor Ater Dhuol as SPLM Lakes state Acting secretary. They also claim that Awet was behind the decision of South Sudan's president Salva Kiir to remove the elected Governor of Lakes state, Chol Tong Mayay, in January 2013.
(ST)