By Bida Elly David
Unpopular SPLA-IO general has announced defection from Dr. Riek Machar SPLM/A-IO party’s’ military wing with a number of 1,621 soldiers to the South Sudan peoples defense forces(SSPDF) claiming unequal issuance of ranks with no support.
Speaking to No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper yesterday, James Majok Maker accused Dr. Machar of being discriminative over issuing military ranks to the soldiers.
He said that SPLA-IO is a discriminative entity that has been playing the role of favoring related people through the head of the political party as well as the military wing.
“I have decided to defect from SPLA-IO due to the fact that Machar has been discriminating issuance of military ranks to soldiers only favoring people related to him. This is the reason I have to go back to the mother party of our president Salva Kiir Mayardit” he said.
He pointed out that the current scope of defection is Korer of Yirol East of Lakes State camping with the aim of official integration into the SSPDF.
Moreover he added that Machar’s top ranking officials lift smart ranks on their shoulders without payment being enacted.
“The recruitment of ranks are useless without something in Pocket. You can’t get anything from that rank. You happily carry good ranking position with zero financial support moving with empty pocket” he said.
Majok added that most soldiers have abandoned Machar have embarked on their private businesses at home.
The self-proclaimed defected General said that despite being with Machar since the incidents of 1991 and 2013, nothing developmental and transformable were witnessed by the soldiers inform of appraisal rather they kept hitting the drum of suffering.
“We fought in 1991 when we were under the leadership of Dr. Riek Machar but up to now we could not get any positive thing from the struggle and division according to clans remained the order of Machar. I have defected with 1, 621 (soldiers),” he said.
General James Majok related their suffering with a proverb of a man who invited farmers to cultivate for him and ended up not paying them for the work done.
“How can we be working without water and food in support of someone who claimed to have been our leader but in real sense he is not a leader who motivate his soldiers” he said.
On his part, Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang the spokesperson of the SSPDF told No.1 Citizen that they were not aware of the defection of the said general but will make further confirmation after some consultation.
“We in the SSPDF are not aware about this since it has never been confirmed officially but we will still wait for further confirmation” Maj. Gen. Lul said.
Meanwhile Lam Paul Gabgriel, the SPLA-IO spokesperson rubbished the claims by the self-proclaimed general saying that it was false.
“If he talked of SPLA-IO in Yirol, then that is a complete lie and he is not among the ranks and hierarchy of the SPLA-IO. May be he wants to tarnish the image of the SPLA-IO or wanting to get support” Col Lam dismissed the alleged defection.