August 4th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit should be careful of the country’s First Vice-President Taban Deng Gai who is aiming at destroying his legacy and pursuing a regime change agenda, a former minister has warned Saturday.
General Gathoth Gatkuoth who served as the country’s minister of labor and public service also denied in a statement issued Saturday reports that he was working to sabotage the government of President Salva Kiir from within in favor of main armed opposition leader Dr. Riek Machar accusing Taban of standing behind what he said were “unfounded and baseless” claims.
“It has come to my attention that the FVP Gen. Taban Deng Gai has been circulating baseless, false, and misleading statements about me and the entire interim leadership of SPLM-IO in TGONU [Transitional Government of National Unity]. My supporters have let me know they are not happy with this, and I personally am extremely disappointed that anyone should feel the need to mislead the people of South Sudan to desperately gamble his political downfall,” General Gatkuoth said in the statement.
The self-imposed “Chairman of Interim Governing Council of the SPLM-IO in TGONU” denied reports that he was aiming at forging ties with First Vice-President and main armed opposition leader Dr. Riek Machar Teny suggesting that Taban was making up stories to cover up his “secret” encounters with members of the SPLM-IO currently in Juba.
“On the same periphery, the FVP Gen Taban Deng Gai cheap propaganda alleges that the reason myself and the legitimate interim leadership of SPLM0-IO in TGONU has not integrated to SPLM is the fact that we are waiting for the return of Rick Machar and form an alliance with him,” he revealed.
“This is unheard-of and frantic sentiment by the FVP Gen Taban Deng Gai in his attempt to cover up his secret dealings with SPLM-IO members residing at Palm Africa Hotel,” he said.
He said the accusations by the FVP should come as a surprise to anyone pointing to a previous accusation by the FVP in January in which aides allied to him accused Gatkuoth of planing to defect to holdout opposition group NAS led by General Thomas Cirilo.
“It should be noted that this is not the first time for the FVP to advance his mad smearing campaign against my name. In January he alleged that I had defected and joined Gen. Thomas Cirilo to wage rebellion against the government,” he said.
“It’s on this pretext that he rounded up my bodyguards while I was still outside the country and detained them at the National Security facility ‘Blue House through his NS connection,” he added.
He warned that president Salva Kiir needs to be careful of the FVP’s activities which he said are aimed at destroying the government and making efforts that would see the government and the regime changed.
“H.E the President Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit should be very careful with this conman who is out to destroy his legacy,” he said.
