July 18th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – A Former spokesman for the prominent opposition and SPLM-IO leader, Dr. Riek Machar Teny, has rejoined the party two years after failing out with the opposition group.
Col. Nyarji Roman was, before his defection from the SPLM-IO, the deputy spokesman for the SPLM-IO leader Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon.
He was the second in the position after James Gatdet Dak who has been sentenced to death by the government.
In a statement seen by the Nyamilepedia on Wednesday, the former SPLM-IO mouthpiece said he decided to leave his Progressive Democrats and rejoins the SPLM-IO as part of a two-months old efforts to reunite the party.
“For the last two months, we have been in serious talks with the leadership of the SPLM-IO starting from the political leaders, ending with high-level military leaders, these talks resulted that there is need to overcome our grievances and differences to unify the internal ranks of the opposition and to resolve the outstanding differences between the party cadres and to modify some of the things within the movement to give more space for the rest of the comrades to return to the movement,” Nyarji said in the statement.
He said, as an outcome to the meetings he said were conducted in Khartoum between him and leaders of the SPLM-IO, they agreed to forget and to forgive each other to correct what might have gone wrong.
“Based on this understanding, we agree to forget and to forgive each other to correct all that has gone wrong between the leadership and the members of the oppositions and to reflect on a true political maturity,” he said.
He revealed that the closed doors meeting in Khartoum has provided for the return of the defected members.
“So, in our last meeting in Khartoum, Sudan with the leaders of the SPLM-IO in opposition, we agreed to unify the ranks and this means those who deserted the movement should rejoin again. Therefore, we would like to take this opportunity to extend our calls to our fellow leaders and comrades who left the movement in the last few years due to personal or political differences to forget about our differences and grievances and rejoin the SPLM-IO to achieve our common political goals,” he said.
Nyarji said, based on the agreement he reached with the leaders of the SPLM-IO in Khartoum, he dissolved his Progressive Democrats and joins Machar’s SPLM-IO.
“Therefore and in reference to all the above mentioned, we hereby announcing dissolving the Progressive Democrats  movement and merge our cadres with the SPLM-IO. From today on, all the progressive Democrats members became members of the SPLM-IO under the leadership of Dr. Riek Machar Teny, the C-in-C of the SPLM-IO,” he further said.
Nyarji defected from the SPLM-IO in 2016 following clashes at the presidential guards and formed is own party which he dissolved today. His party was called Progressive Democrats
