A letter of dismissal from Juba University to Dr. Luka Biong Deng claims that the professor requested to be relieved from office owing to “personal issues” – contradicting reports that he was fired on orders of President Salva Kiir and was forced into exile.

Luka Biong organized a symposium earlier this month to discuss the Establishment Order issued by Salva Kiir to dissolve the existing ten state governments and their constitutions and replace them with new states whose boundaries and governors were to be determined and appointed by Kiir himself.

The symposium featured SPLM-DC chairman Lam Akol on the one hand and the chairman of the Dinka Council of Elders and the Presidential Legal Affairs Advisor on the other. Reportedly, the event got out of hand when students demanded answers from the latter two participants about the decree.

In subsequent media reports, Kiir was alleged to have ordered the removal of Luka Biong, who has left the country.

According to the letter of dismissal, seen by Radio Tamazuj, Biong made a “personal request for relief as Director of Center for Peace and Development Studies so as to be able to attend to some pressing family issues.”

Juba University Vice Chancellor John Apuruot Akec added, “We wish you best of luck in addressing your personal issues and see you back in the University in the near future.”

The letter was dated 16 October 2015, taking effect from 20 October 2015.

Meanwhile, the presidency denied ordering the firing of the professor of peace studies. “There is no any single presidential order or presidential decree that has asked the University of Juba to sack Luka Biong,” Kiir's spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said Friday.

“This is a concocted story. The president doesn’t go there to appoint lecturers or to dismiss them,” he added.

For his part, Minister in the Office of the President Awan Guol Riak said he was not aware of any order from the president to dismiss Luka and expel him from the country.

“I cannot confirm because I am not aware of the order. The president did not ask for dismissal of Luka Biong and I did not hear that Justice Ambrose Riiny Thiik [head of the Dinka Council of Elders] came to the president to advise the president to remove him. I just learnt this from the media and this is what I know,” said Awan without providing additional comments.

The officials were reacting to media reports attributing the departure of Luka Biong from the country to threats on his life after organising the public lecture, where students and participants discussed the constitutionality and legality of Establishment Order.

Radio Tamazuj contacted Luka Biong this week but he declined to comment for the time being.