SPLM-DC’s Lam Akol takes Pagan Amum to court over allegations
March 18, 2011 (JUBA) – The leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement for Democratic Change (SPLM-DC), Lam Akol, announced Thursday that he will file a court case against the Secretary General of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), Pagan Amum over allegations that leaked documents from Khartoum’s defense ministry prove that he is related to armed groups in South Sudan.
Amum this week claimed that documents he presented to the press show that the northern government was arming militias affiliated to the chairman of SPLM-DC, Lam Akol. The SPLM-DC chairman has denied the charges, saying they were fabricated to tarnish the image of his political party, which broke away from the SPLM in 2009.
In statements published by The Citizen newspaper in Juba on Friday, the leader of the opposition in South Sudan’s parliament and senior member of the SPLM-DC, Onyoti Odigo, was quoted as saying that Lam Akol had already opened a court case and challenged Pagan Amum to turn up in court and prove his allegations.
“Dr. Lam has filed a case against Pagan Amum but Pagan fears to go and prove his allegations and what he termed as evidence in court,” he said.
Odigo who made the statements in a press conference he organized in Juba on Thursday said Pagan Amum was only expressing anger because he has lost popularity in the Shilluk land areas. Both Akol and Amum are both from the Shilluk ethnic group, from Upper Nile and have been rivals for many years.
The senior SPLM-DC spokesperson said that all the parliamentary seats in Shilluk areas were won by SPLM-DC during the 2010 April elections.
“There is no doubt the whole community is behind the DC,” he said, adding that Pagan wanted to divide the people of South Sudan and try to put a distance between Lam Akol and the South’s president Salva Kiir.
He explained that the forces that attacked Malakal were being assembled and fed by the SPLM ruled state government of Upper Nile.
“How can the militias of SPLM-DC stay with the SPLM and who gives them food, can you stay with your enemies?” he asked.
In his press conference on Monday, Pagan Amum said he was ready to go to any court because he has the evident connecting the SPLM-DC to militias.
“Yes, I am ready to go to court but which court did they open their case, is it ICC?” he asked.
(ST)