December 1st 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s National Security Services (NSS) detained lawmakers from the country’s Yei River state for more than two hours at the state parliament building on Thursday, a lawmaker said this morning.
“This morning (Nov. 28th) a director from the national security by names of Ala, led the forces at 11.30am and put members of parliament in YRS [Yei River state] under detention up to 1.20 pm. He closed all the assembly doors and gates, the reasons are that he was ordered by Governor of Yei River State who was against the MPs vote of no confidence against the State Minister of Finance for alleged disappearance of public funds,….as the assembly demanded the Minister to account for sum above SSP 50,000,000 million and another sum of USD 12, 050,” the lawmaker who refused to be named told the Nyamilepedia this morning.
“Basically, the government did not want this amount to be accounted for and thus not in support of the impeachment motion. At this junction the relationship between the Parliament and State Governor is worse, and the tensions are high…above all the local communities are not happy with the Governor,” the lawmaker said.
The MP said the National Security elements arrested the driver of the parliament speaker and blocked the speaker himself from leaving the assembly building.
“During the besiege, the armed soldiers were inside the assembly, all offices including latrines were controlled, the speaker’s driver arrested and the speaker himself blocked from leaving the assembly. This is really unacceptable,” he said.
“As this detention order was made, the deputy governor was not even aware. He struggled and was able to intervene and calm the situation afterwards.”
