May 8th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – The controversial First Vice President, Gen. Taban Deng Gai, wants his colleague, Lt. Gen. Alfred Lado Gore, his deputy before joining the SPLM-IG, out of politics just days after joining the ruling SPLM faction under the current South Sudan incumbent, Salva Kiir Mayardiit, sources close to the First Vice President told the Nyamilepedia on Monday from the South Sudan’s capital, Juba.
While Gen. Gore, one source told the Nyamilepedia, wants the absorption into the ruling SPLM-IG to be based on seniority, Gen. Taban, the former Unity State Governor and the head of the SPLM-IO Juba faction that was dissolved last week, wants Gen. Lado to retire and out of politics.
The source pointed out that Gen. Lado feels senior to Taban as he has been previously a minister to various national ministries.
“General Taban wants Lado out of government and eventually out of politics. But Lado believes he is more senior to His Excellency the First Vice President Gen. Taban Deng. He want the integration into the ruling SPLM to be based on seniority but the First Vice President wants it to go based on the peace agreement,” the source told the Nyamilepedia.
Another source revealed that the government has agreed with an initiative presented by the First Vice President Taban and Minister John Luk Joak to implement the Arusha Reunification Accords only with them and to forget about Dr. Riek Machar and Pagan Amum Okiech, both of whom are the First SPLM Deputy and Secretary General respectively.
Dr. Riek is the leader of the SPLM-IO which has been waging an armed resistance against the government of President Salva Kiir since December 2013 while Pagan is the leader of an opposition group known as the SPLM-Former Detainees (SPLM-FDs) which is currently a member of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA). Machar and Pagan are supposed to be reintegrated back to their positions in the SPLM if the Arusha Reunification Agreement were to be implemented. The Taban-Luk-Kiir implementation of the deal contradicts what has been agreed upon by the SPLM factions in Arusha in 2015.
“President Kiir has agreed to an initiative by the Frist Vice President and Minister John Luk Joak to implement the Agreement based on them and to exclude the former First Vice President Riek Machar and Secretary General Pagan Amum because they don’t want to come without any preconditions.,” the source said.
“What can you do to a person who doesn’t want peace?” the source asked.
Taban, who is currently, the First Vice President was the SPLM-IO chief negotiator but rebelled after a fight at the Presidential Palace in J1 marking the collapse of a 2015 peace deal and a transitional government stipulated for in the agreement.
South Sudan descended into a deadly civil war in December 2013 after forces loyal to the country’s president, Salva Kiir Mayardiit and his then Governor of Northern Bahr Al-Ghazal State Gen. Paul Malong Awan went door-to-door in the capital Juba killing civilians belonging to the Nuer ethnic group sparking a nation-wide protests from top army generals from the Nuer leading to a civil war.
