Former Secretary General of the SPLM Mr Pagan Amum who arrived in Juba yesterday has been reinstated by members of the National Liberation Council (NLC) today as secretary-general and he will take an oath this evening at 5pm before the Chairman Salva Kiir.
Speaking on Tuesday at the State House in Juba after a lengthy meeting by members of the National Liberation Council, Akol Paul, spokesperson for the SPLM said that Pagan Amum will fully assume his office today while a few technical procedures are yet to be finished.
“We have just finished the extraordinary National Liberation Council meeting called by the chairman of SPLM Comrade Salva Kiir Mayardit. Today 23th of June, 2015 is a day that will go down in the history of SPLM. The Arusha Reunification Agreement has now borne fruits,” Akol said.
“In the interest of peace, unity, reconciliation and unification, the Chairman of the SPLM party asked the members of NLC to reconsider and revoke the decisions of the dismissal of the SPLM Secretary Comrade Pagan Amum. With this I will like to informed you the NLC has revoked the decision,” he added.
Paul also said that the development today meant the end of the so-called “Former Detainees” or “G10” faction. Amum has been a leading member of the group, which stayed in exile in Nairobi since more than a year. Meanwhile, all the members of NLC and Political Bureau will meet at 5 pm to witness the swearing-in ceremony of Amum at SPLM House.
Amum’s ‘G10’ faction was non-armed and did not control any territory. It represented a group politically opposed to Kiir’s chairmanship of the party before the civil war started in December 2013. Riek Machar’s armed faction SPLM-IO remains at war with the government.
Photo: Pagan Amum (left) with Deng Alor (right) today at the NLC meeting