Authorities have dropped the case against Anthony Mbando Joseph, deputy chairman of the Western Bahr el Ghazal SPLM, who was arrested last June. The politician, now back in Wau, told Radio Tamazuj that he will continue to participate in the party.
Mbando was cleared of charges in late September after spending more than three monhts under house arrest in Juba, but he only returned to his home state this week.
The freed politician is a former state minister and government advisor who was later removed from his position. Suspicions that he was trying to form a militia group culminated in his arrest by security services in June after he left the state traveling south.
The official was found in Sorsibo in Western Equatoria near the border with Central African Republic along with a number of people described at the time as Ambororo, a nomadic ethnic group.
The officer said that his journey to Western Equatoria was not of a secret nature but was known to the top SPLM leaders in Wau town. “I took permission from the state SPLM Chairperson General Mark Nyipouch and the party’s secretary general and I informed the media in Wau that I wanted to start agriculture,” he said in an interview after his arrival in Wau this week.
He described his journey as a mission to collect agricultural seeds like cassava, maize, okra, and banana stems for planting. “I was granted some loan from the agriculture bank so I thought to go to Central African Republic to buy some fruit seeds,” he said.
“I fueled my vehicle in the daytime at Hai Lokloko and in the market center there all people were seeing me, so how can one say that I went secretly?” said Mbando.
He explained also that one of the old men with him at the time of his arrest was someone who had served him for a long time in Wau and whom he was taking back to his village Sorsibo so that he could die in peace. He said he did not reach the border but only ended up in Sorsibo.
‘I will never run away from politics’
Mbando explained that during the time before his arrest he was following up a proposal which he submitted to the state governor aiming to rebuild a strong relationship between the state government and the party secretariat.
“I submitted a proposal to the state governor which aimed at rebuilding a strong relationship between the state government and the SPLM party secretariat, but they keep telling me come tomorrow,” he said.
The politician said that his arrest was aimed at keeping him out of party conferences and to isolate him from politics. “I will never leave SPLM and I will never run away from politics,” he said.
“They took me away from the ministry, took away my position but still I remain in SPLM and I will die as SPLM ,” he said.
He denied that he had intended to form a militia after losing his position in the government. “My arrest was as a result of other politicians who are gossiping behind the back of others, so they gossiped behind my back but the truth has set me free,” he said.
Reconciliation with accusers
Among the charges leveled against Anthony Mbando were that he had links with George Athor or that he was trying to form a militia group affiliated to the LRA, the extremist group that fought the Ugandan government before being pushed out into Congo and Central Africa.
“My children are in Uganda, so why should I fight the Ugandans?” he questioned.
Mbando alleged, on the other hand, that some party officials wanted to expel him from the party and or to suspend him for two years.
When the investigation was carried out the charges against him were found to be untrue and he was released.
“The truth has set me free and I would like to praise Salva Kiir and the security for their professional work,” he added. The officer said that the president was following the event and because of his innocence he ordered his release.
“From the bottom of my heart, I have forgiven all the people who accused me and I have no problem with anybody including the state governor,” he said. He noted that he will go and meet the governor but if the governor refuses to greet him (as he did before) then it is his own problem, he said.
The SPLM official urged the security apparatus in the country to demonstrate the professional work they did in his case to all the people in the country. “The security cannot stand in your favor just because you are strong or cannot be against you just because you are weak, but security is for all of us and it is in the middle of us,” he said, adding that the security is not for somebody but it is for all the people.
Photo by Radio Tamazuj: Anthony Mbando Joseph (in yellow shirt) at the time of his arrest on 8 June 2010. The people seated were said to be Ambororo and were traveling with Mbando.