Warrap State Information Minister William Wol Mayom on Monday confirmed that the National Security Service (NSS) has arrested four people in the state in connection with an audio recording that went viral a couple of weeks ago in which witch doctors purportedly hired by Gen. Akol Koor Kuc were invoking the gods to kill President Salva Kiir.
According to Wol, the first suspect was arrested by the NSS last week in Juba and the rest were arrested in Tonj South County in Warrap State later last week.
“What I know is that the arrests were triggered by a leaked audio that was fabricated by a certain man from Tonj. When it (audio) was traced by the NSS, a suspect was apprehended in Juba and later on flown to Tonj where he named the people who produced the audio wishing to harm our president,” he said. “The people speaking in the audio wished the president instant death. However, the audio was made up and the good thing is that the people who made it were not spiritual spear masters but just drunk. They called on god to take away the head of the state and also prayed that something good happens to the NSS’ Internal Security Bureau (ISB) Director General Gen. Akol Koor.”
“That fabricated audio was complicating relations between the president and Gen. Koor,” Wol added.
However, the NSS’ ISB over the weekend put out a press statement confirming that its operatives had arrested the four people who authored the audio which seems to have put the reclusive Gen. Koor in a spot of bother with the president.
“As promised, the ISB has conducted a thorough investigation into the matter, identified, located, and apprehended individuals responsible for perpetrating such heinous acts against our respectable institution and its leadership,” the ISB statement said. “The mastermind behind the audio recording is one Mayom Kur Mum, who worked together with Makol Atem, the husband of his elder sister to maliciously orchestrate the defamation in the form of the audio recording.”
“Together with Mawein Deng, Marial Madut, Mayom Kur Mum’s in-law, Makol Atem testified that they carried this heinous act of defamation,” the ISB added.
The statement said that the NSS will open a case and present the suspects to the court of law.
In 2021, the police arrested the self-styled ‘Prophet’ Abraham Chol Malketh for ‘prophesying’ that President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar would die on 9 July 2021, the tenth Independence Day anniversary of South Sudan.
Chol was later charged under sections 66, 74, 76, 201, and 202 of South Sudan’s Penal Code and sentenced to serve 31 months in prison. He was released in May this year.