The Transitional National Legislative Assembly said Wednesday it closed the office of First Deputy Speaker Nathaniel Oyet Perino, citing his absence from South Sudan amid political tensions in the capital, Juba.
Oyet, deputy chairman of the SPLM-IO party led by detained leader Riek Machar, left the country after several senior SPLM-IO members fled or went into hiding following Machar’s house arrest last month.
On Monday, Oyet suspended Stephen Par Kuol — the SPLM-IO’s nominated minister for national peacebuilding under a 2018 power-sharing deal — and three others, accusing them of fostering disunity and conspiring with President Salva Kiir’s SPLM party to replace Machar. Par dismissed the suspension as “the joke of the year.”
Tensions among SPLM-IO officials have simmered since Machar, the first vice president, was placed under house arrest in Juba.
Parliament spokesperson Oliver Mori Benjamin told Radio Tamazuj that lawmakers closed Oyet’s office after he went missing without notifying parliamentary administration.
“This man disappeared two days before the Nasir incident, if you can follow. And then he could not be seen. There had been business of the parliament. He is not there. So the day before yesterday, the leadership of the parliament had a meeting to discuss other issues of the parliament, of course, including the absence of the first deputy speaker,” Benjamin said.
He accused Oyet of taking his office stamp and letterhead and using them for communications while absent.
“And what drew our attention most was he decided to go with the stamp of his office. He also went with the letterhead of the office of the first deputy speaker. And he started using those stamp and the letterhead for communication and so on,” Benjamin said.
The parliament declared any current communications from Oyet invalid, he added.
“So the leadership yesterday decided that any communication from him, the first deputy speaker on social media or any other means of communication should be considered null and void. And immediate action was taken to get his office closed. And the appropriate committees in the parliament were directed to take action on certain administrative steps,” he said.
Benjamin said Oyet no longer holds parliamentary authority but retains his party role.
“So as of yesterday, he has no voice to say or to give. But he is free to use the political party office. You know that he is the deputy chair of IO, whatever he is, he is free to do that. But any parliamentary activity is stripped off. His whereabouts is not known. And that is why that decision was taken,” Benjamin said.
He added that the parliament would consult the SPLM-IO in Juba to appoint a replacement for Oyet under the 2018 peace agreement.
“The SPLM-IO Liberation Council and the Political Bureau are meeting today to decide on the way forward regarding the implementation of the peace agreement. So, if there is any replacement, we will follow the rules of the parliament and the peace agreement,” he said.
In a Tuesday interview with Radio Tamazuj, Oyet accused Kiir of failing to implement the peace deal and plotting to replace Machar.
“They have been mobilizing SPLM-IO officials in Juba, offering positions and intimidating others. This won’t work — it’s the same as when Taban Deng replaced Machar in 2016,” Oyet said.
He declared the peace agreement “dead” after Machar’s detention, alleging Kiir and the National Security Service were backing a group of SPLM-IO officials in Juba to replace Machar and undermine the deal.