N. Bahr el Ghazal cabinet countermands order to collect vehicles
Cabinet ministers in Northern Bahr el Ghazal have countermanded an order by the deputy governor instructing police and national security personnel to assist in recollecting vehicles recently distributed to state officials and ordering them to be brought to the state house compound.
Deputy Governor Salva Chol Ayat, who is now the acting governor, yesterday ordered the vehicles to be collected from the hands of state ministers and heads of parliamentary committees to whom the vehicles had been distributed.
On the same evening, the Council of Ministers met and “deliberated the decision regarding the recall of vehicles and resolved to not to recollect them,” said Information Minister Wek Kuc.
The official cited a number of reasons for not returning the vehicles, claiming that the deputy governor was convinced and that it was resolved that the vehicles would not be taken from the ministers as previously ordered.
“There were reasons for stopping recollection. One of the reasons is that these vehicles were distributed by a resolution of the councils of ministers and if there is a need it should be the same council to sit again and make another decision.”
“The other reason is that these vehicles were not distributed for personal use. They were purchased because there was a need to facilitate the running of daily activities of the government in the delivery services to the people. They are public properties and for this matter it was agreed that they should not be recollected since they are already doing the purpose for which they were purchased and distributed,” he explained.
NBEG’s ruling party has been divided after a dispute between Kuel Aguer and party chairman Paul Malong, who is now a top army general based in Juba but remains involved in the state’s politics. Many of the cabinet ministers have remained vocally supportive of the ousted caretaker governor.
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