General Dau Aturjong, one of the highest ranking Dinka armed opposition commanders with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) under the leadership of the first vice president, Riek Machar, has denied on Thursday reports alleging he defected to the governing SPLM faction under President Salva Kiir (SPLM-Juba).
“There is nothing like that,” said Dau in an interview when reached on Thursday to comment on allegation that he defected from the group of Riek Machar and joined a faction of President Salva Kiir.
“I am still part of the movement and if there is such a development, it would be public,” he added.
However, he confirmed having met the Jieng Council of Elders in response to a request by the ‘elders’ to have a meeting with him. The group proposed to him to defect and join the ruling faction and promised him to lobby for his appointment into a senior position either a governor or reinstatement into active military service.
Dau neither rejected nor accepted the offer, sparking speculations that he had defected.
Some of his supporters and political allies questioned whether the offer from the Jieng Council was genuine, or whether it was a ruse by his rival, General Paul Malong Awan, to deny him an opportunity to be appointed in the transitional government to any senior position on the SPLM-IO ticket.
Akol Madhan Akol, the armed opposition appointed governor for Northern Bahr el Ghazal and one of the officials speculated to have switched allegiance together with General Dau to SPLM, also denied in a separate interview. “That is not true. We are still with the movement. We have not defected. What is circulating on social media is just a work of propagandists,” said Akol also on Thursday.
Related:
South Sudan former rebel commander says ready to forgive (22 May 2016)
Gen. Dau Aturjong says SPLM/A ‘hijacked’ after death of Garang (4 June 2014)