The minister of health in Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal State, Dau Riiny Lual, last Friday afternoon got involved in a fistfight with a medical doctor employed by the state.
The minister and Dr. Dut Piol had an altercation over the use of a vehicle allocated to the Neglected Tropical Diseases Project (NTD) superintended by the latter.
According to reports, the minister asked the program manager of NTD, Dr. Dut Piol to use the vehicle for his duties, a move the doctor rejected.
Dr. Piol said the vehicle is meant for use by patients who are to undergo surgery as directed by the organization which donated the vehicle.
“I think the minister has been in a process to take the NTD program vehicle for his duties facilitation from the time he came to the office until I fought with him today,” Dr. Piol said. “The point I fought him today was that he snatched the vehicle from the driver’s hand. They were in a group which included his office manager, his driver, and two other guys I don’t know plus the minister himself.’’
He concluded that the minister has no interest in working with the doctors in the state because he has been antagonistic since he assumed office.
Stephen Garang, an eyewitness and the driver for the NTD program, said the program manager, Dr. Dut Piol, directed him to drive the minister wherever he wanted to go but that after they arrived at the minister’s house, the health minister ordered him to hand over the car keys to his driver.
Garang, the designated driver of the vehicle, said he requested that the minister consult the program manager but he refused. According to him, a fight broke out when he returned with his boss to repossess the vehicle.
“What happened this (Friday) afternoon is that I was sent by the program manager of NTD to drive the minister wherever he wished to go. So when I reached the house, I was ordered to hand over the keys to the minister’s driver and I told them to first call my manager who gave me the vehicle and they told me who is he to call him,’’ Garang said.
Health Minister Dau Riiny was contacted severally by Radio Tamazuj, but he declined to comment.
Santino Deng Ngong, a civil society activist, strongly condemned the fight and urged government officials to work as a team even though there are various parties within the government.