Wau state communities want ex-general appointed governor

October 25, 2015 (JUBA) – Communities from the newly established state of Wau in South Sudan’s Western Bahr el Ghazal have asked president Salva Kiir to appoint former Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), Elias Waya Nyipuoch as the caretaker governor.

The decision was made at meetings conducted by the community, including Sunday’s gathering in Wau town by Luo communities from where Waya hails.

“It is now right time in a right place for General Waya through is age, ability and his biography history in the Sudan’s long 21 years liberation struggle to have this chance of becoming a governor of Wau state,” said chief Uraya Dut, who attended Sunday’s meeting which was chaired by the Luo community elder leader, Joseph Ukell Abango.

“Am very glad to have your feeling position letter on General Waya. I will take it along with me to Juba as your opinion feeling,” added Abango, a former education minister.

Born in 1958, Waya holds a masters degree in military strategy from staff and command college from Omdurman in Sudan. Proir to that, he had attended a military college and graduated with a diploma as a 2nd Lieutenant in Sudan Army Forces (SAF) in 1981.

He joined the SPLA in August 1992 after a failed mutiny against the Sudanese army, becoming a commander around Juba in October 1992. Waya then fought with the SPLA for many years before he was assigned as head of technical committee for joint defense board in Khartoum from 2005-2009 after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed.

Waya was assigned director of SPLA organisation for officers’ affairs and general training. He was among the senior army officers placed on reserve list by President Kiir in 2013.

(ST)