By Mamer Abraham
The family of former minister for finance Arthur Akuien Chol has vowed to challenge the former SPLM Secretary General-turned-opposition, Pagan Amum, in a court of law.
This came days after Akuein launched his memoir titled “A LIFE FIGHTING FOR MY PEOPLE” in Juba, which compelled Pagan to challenge Chapter 17 of the book titled “Declaring My Innocence.”
In a rebuttal to the viral challenge, Angok Arthur Akuien Chol, a former Member of Parliament (MP), declared that his family was ready to file a lawsuit in a court of law.
“But in a shallow political ambush, Mr. Pag’an Amum, the former SPLM Secretary General, hijacked Chapter 17 of the book titled “Declaring My Innocence” with a baseless onslaught,” Angok said in a statement extended to the No. 1 Citizen Daily Newspaper.
“However, the family would like to inform all the South Sudanese that it’s ready to challenge Cde Pag’an in the court of law as far as his latest claim is concerned, though he had abused the state powers earlier to safeguard himself.”
Arthur said last week that the accusations labeled against him by Pagan Amum and Luka Biong were not “substantial” because the money alleged to have been stolen was paid to a man called Isaac Makur and Silvano Jal Malith.
“In 2006, I was accused of misusing and stealing public funds. The accusations were rumored by Cde. Pag’an Amum and Luka Biong, but the allegation wasn’t substantial as the sum of money they concocted was paid to Mr. Isaac Makur and Mr. Silvano Jal Malith, the then signatories to the account,” said Arthur.
He argued that Pagan was among the many who were striving to tarnish people’s images, and therefore his family had adequate evidence to produce in court.
“As one of the first generation of South Sudanese political leaders, the one who devoted his life to improving the quality of life for our people, it is becoming clear that there are people who want to repudiate their mishaps with lies and Cde. Pag’an Amum is one of them. Therefore, I and my family hold enough pieces of evidence to prove him wrong in court if he files the case,” he continued.
When contacted for a comment, Pagan said he was waiting for a piece of advice from his lawyer, stressing that it was a legal matter and therefore he might not comment.
“It is a legal matter now; I desist from making any further comments to the media not to prejudice the case. I am still waiting for my lawyer’s advice,” he stated in a response extended to this outlet.
Pagan’s side of the story
Following the publication of Arthur’s book, Pagan wrote a letter published by Paanluel Wel bloggers that he would drag Arthur and his book publisher to court.
Pagan claimed that he (Arthur) was trying to cover his mistakes by writing a book, yet he was involved in the misappropriation of funds, and therefore the court fined him 3,000,000 SSP.
“The court established that the Ministry of Finance did transfer $48,000,000 to the SPLM account, of which I was not even a signatory. He was found liable and was fined 3,000,000 SSP as compensation for damages. Now that he has published this book, I will take him to court in another civil case together with his publisher,” he explained.
“Besides, he is contradicting himself with different versions. I ordered a book from Amazon. This has nothing to do with his accusation of corruption or arrest, for example. He is trying to cover it by mixing apples and oranges. Poor Arthur.”
Pagan dismissed the claims that Arthur had sent $30,000,000 in SSP into his personal account, adding that Arthur failed to prove himself in court.
No. 1 Citizen Newspaper could not reach the other people mentioned in the letter written by Arthur’s family for comment.