By Bida Elly David
National Minister of Information and also government spokesperson, Michael Makuei has blamed the SPLM-IO for delaying deployment of graduated unified forces.
He said the main opposition party has failed to submit the list of officers for the second echelon of the unified command of the forces.
“The chairman of the IO was given the list of titles of officers whom he should nominate so that they are commissioned to be part and partial of the current graduated forces to lead them but now they have not been given out,” Makuei said on a Friday.
He revealed that it had finally been decided that the forces should be deployed without the leadership command structure since the opposition failed to reply accordingly.
“This is the type of obstruction I have been talking about. Failing to provide the list so that it goes to the president for commissioning after which they will be deployed,” he noted.
“These forces will be deployed with only temporary leadership representation since there is no list. This is the situation in which we are” he continued.
The gov’t spokesperson echoed that the presence of the first graduated phase at the cantonment sit has contributed negatively to the graduation of the second phase.
The information minister stated that phase two of the training process would not be possible without the forces of phase one moving out of the centers.
“In phase two, you hand over your items then you are registered after which you will be screened whether you are fit or not because in phase one everybody went without screening,” Michael said.
“Phase two is now required to report to the cantonment site so that they hand over their items because we don’t want what happened in phase one to repeat itself in phase two,” he added
In rebuttal, Puok Both Bulang, the acting press secretary in the office of the First Vice President trashed Makuei’s statement terming it a misinformation to the public.
He said the SPLM-IO is guided by an agreement earlier discussed to allocate submissions within the unified forces as a command at the first and middle echelons.
Puok added that parties in April 2021 also sat and agreed on the formation of the second and middle echelon which was the leadership structure for the graduation of the forces.
“The agreement noted that when we know which department within the faction of the unified forces is allocated to the IO, we will send our names according to that,” he said
Machar’s mouthpiece stated that SPLM-IO is a political party that believes in the law and any legal agreement signed.
“We will not send our names without agreeing on the allocation of the middle echelon and the second echelon downwards,” he said.
Puok urged the government spokesperson not to mislead the public with information that is irrelevant to the agreement signed.
“As a spokesperson of the Revitalized government, Makuei would have stated the fact that was agreed upon in the agreement. He has narrowed himself to an old spokesperson of one party which is SPLM-IG,’’ he added.
“We urge Michael Makuei to demonstrate his patriotism as a spokesperson of the whole reconstituted government and give the public, particularly the people of South Sudan the correct information,” he echoed.
He noted that the benefit of the unification of the command structure for the unified forces is for South Sudanese and the parties.
“Three of the structures of the unified forces particularly the civil defense, the prison and also the wildlife have been agreed by the parties. That is allocation of the second and middle echelon we are remaining with the police, army and the national security,” Puok revealed.
He said their list of command structure for the second and middle echelon allocated to parties will be sent on the fact of structures that will be allocated.