Western Equatoria parliament removes State Governor

Feb 24, 2007 (LONDON) — The Western Equatoria state assembly voted, in an unprecedented move on Tuesday 20 February, to oust the current incumbent Governor Lt Gen. Samuel Abujohn, press release stated.

The move came after the stalemate in Western Equatoria State which has been going on for about six months now since the appointment of the new Governor in a controversial decree last September 2006. The former governor Patrick Zomai had been suspended on 16 June 2006 over corruption and incitement to tribal conflict accusations.

Governor Abujhon was ousted by the State parliament “because of incompetence and a series of failures.” The decision was taken by the state lawmakers during debate on the bill of finances for 2007, on 20 February.

Abujhon was at odds with ministerial team and was often absent from his office and delaying the function of the institutions of the state.

(ST)

For further details, please read the press release hereunder by chairman of Western Equatoria Azande Community , Eng. Charles B. Kisanga, Who is a credible source in Wetern Equatoria affairs:

Feb 24, 2007 — Reports from the ground in Western Equatoria seem to suggest that the state assembly voted, in an unprecedented move on Tuesday 20 February 2007, to oust the current incumbent Governor Lt Gen. Samuel Abujohn.

The move came after the stalemate in Western Equatoria state which has been going on for about six months now since the appointment of the new Governor in a controversial decree last September 2006 by Lt Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit, the President of Government of Southern Sudan.

After his appointment Lt. Gen. General Samuel Abujohn wanted to dismiss most of the ministers from the previous state Government on trumped up corruption charges. The charges were said to be baseless after a GoSS committee/officials had a look at them and so Abujohn had been instructed to continue working with those ministers including the Finance minister who had been sometimes under house arrest and on continued suspension.

Hence when it came to the making and passing of Western Equatoria budget for 2007 it were mostly the State Assembly committees to draw up the budget and present it with some directives from the Governor himself. Recently before the budget was passed by the state assembly the Governor had rushed to Juba to follow up his continued request for dismissing people from his cabinet. The deputy Governor also followed suit. However due to the urgency of the need to pass the budget of 2007 since most departments were going unpaid, his acting Government led by Mrs Jasmine Samuel had no alternative but to present the budget for passing before the state legislature. They were also forced by the civil servants and the public who were threatening to go on demonstrations unless something was done about the none-payment of salaries whereby some departments in Western Equatoria state had gone for months without pay.

Hence on 20th February 2007, the state assembly convened to discuss the budget and during that debate the assembly decided to slash most of the amounts on the state ministries budget proposals. After that the assembly also raised a motion of no confidence in the Governorship of Lt. Gen Samuel Abujohn. The state assembly then proceeded to debate that they no longer recognise Samuel Abujohn as governor and they would inform Juba of their decision to strip the Governor, Samuel Abujohn, because of incompetence and a series of failures. Some of the reasons said to be cited were like the lack of his appearance in the office. Some members claimed that ever since taking office and especially more recently, the Governor Samuel Abujohn cannot afford to stay in his office for more than 30 minutes. They claim that even at home where he might claim to work from he is accused of always lying in bed all the time and he cannot afford to sit upright for more than half an hour in order to discuss matters with visiting officials. Also the issue of security and of non-payment of salaries of civil servants as well as the stalemate in the government of Western Equatoria . The issue had been the Governor, Samuel Abujohn had suspended some ministers without being able to replace those he suspended thereby rendering his Government ineffective. Also suspending the finance minister also meant that funds and cash were being handled only by the Governor himself whereby he has resorted to the abuse of power by choosing to pay only those whom he may wish to pay since he is the only man who can sign payments to officials.

On hearing of the action taken by state Assembly while he was in Juba , the Governor Samuel Abujohn ,rushed back to Yambio where he yesterday hurriedly convened a meeting of the SPLM Party from 7:00 pm until 1:00 am in the morning. He blasted the SPLM members for siding with other parties to oust him and he is now claiming that all SPLM members who took part in the vote will be dismissed from the assembly with immediate effect. He has also asked for the detention of Mr. Simon Kayang, an MP of the state assembly because the Governor said he is one of masterminds of the plot to impeach and oust him.

The Western Equatoria Intellectuals and the Diaspora would like to inform the Governor that dismissing or suspending MPs it is not the best way to solve problems as it is the MPs constitutional rights to take action if it is deemed the Government is failing the people. In the recent past the Assembly of Eastern Equatoria also did vote to impeach their Governor and in such cases members of parliament are immune from persecution and so the Governor has no right to suspend or dismiss MPs. Also the Governor is said to be refusing to pay some MPs their salaries claiming that they are bad people who took part in a plot against him. This is not the right way forward as the MPs are not supposed to be hindered by the Governor from practicing their constitutional rights of discussing the effectiveness of the Government of the day.

Hence we call upon the Governor to reverse all his punishments levied against MPs for discussing his incompetence since he has no legal bases for suspending MPs for exercising their legal rights. Also we call upon the MPs of Western Equatoria state to conduct their impeachment procedure following the right steps such as writing an official letter to the effect with their resolutions and sending an official delegation to Juba to explain to the GoSS president the reasons why they think Lt Gen Samuel Abujohn must go and why they now want a new governor. We argue everybody to conduct themselves according to the rule of law so that these problems are solved amicably as much as it is guaranteed under the constitution of the state and that of Southern Sudan ..

Charles B. Kisanga M.Sc, MBCS, MIET

Eng. Kisanga is former SPLM NLC member and chairman of Western Equatoria Azande Community World-Wide Organisation. He is currently living and working in exile in the UK and he can be reached on [email protected]