The executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), Edmund Yakani, has said the fallout among political leaders in Yambio in Western Equatoria State is creating tensions and insecurity there and urged the leaders to dialogue.
On 8 October, the deputy governor of Western Equatoria State, Kennedy Ganiko, who also doubles as the state chairperson of the SPLM, told a press conference in Yambio that SPLM and the other parties to the peace agreement had withdrawn from participating in the state government.
“Following the withdrawal of Governor Alfred Futuyo Karaba from the Government of Western Equatoria State council of ministers and his indefinite suspension of the council of ministers meetings on Friday 7 October, We the members of the SPLM/IG, SSOA, OPP, FDs, and SPLM-IO in the executive, state parliament, independent commissions, and the county commissioners do hereby declare to the public our decision to withdraw our active participation from western Equatoria State government,” he told reporters at the time.
Ganiko and his group also faulted Governor Futuyo, who is the SPLM-IO state chairperson, for embezzlement of public funds, unilateral decision to deduct salaries, grabbing and selling of public land, and failure to provide security across the state among other things.
However, CEPO’s Yakani in an audio statement to Radio Tamazuj on Friday said the political frictions in Yambio may ignite a perilous situation of insecurity.
“I would like to raise an alarm to the political leadership of Western Equatoria State that we are watching this latest political crisis or friction that is going on among the political leaders there with serious concern,” Yakani said. “We are concerned because we have started witnessing negative developments around Yambio town where security and safety are deteriorating. We want to alert the politicians who are behind the tensions that we are watching.
“We urge you to resolve your political differences through dialogue and please abstain from using violence as a way of mitigating your political frictions,” he added.
The CEPO boss also urged the armed forces in Western Equatoria State not to join or take sides in the political impasse.
“If politicians want to continue clashing, they should not use the state apparatus and institutions. To the armed forces, if you see politicians abusing the law, do not compromise with them but hold them accountable,” he advised.
Yakani called on the presidency to take “primary responsibility in creating political discipline in the states”
“The leadership of the country should act on the problem in Western Equatoria and apply the theory of leadership change that we have seen applied in other states if that is the best option for ensuring peace and stability in Yambio,” he said.