Warrap Member of Parliament accuses State governor of assassination plan
December 24, 2011 (JUBA) – Warrap State MP, Ariec Mayar Ariec, on Saturday said he had received information that the state governor, Nyandeng Malek Deliech, was planning to have him assassinated for being a critic of her administration.
Ariec, who has been one of the 32 members in the Assembly seeking removal of the State governor allegedly on ground that she has shown inability to satisfactorily run the state affairs, since her election into the office in 2010, said the governor after repeated attempts to convince him become one of her supporters, has now resorted to ill intentions including plan to completely assassinate him.
“This is the second time I received this information not only from my friends but from senior government officials, especially her close allies, telling me that I should be careful. The first information was from one of her close friends and another from her family member”, Ariec told Sudan Tribune. Because of the significance of this information, I decided to officially let members of the public what the governor is planning against me”, he said
The member of the state legislative Assembly accused the governor a week after a high court in the state arraigned and sentenced four security personnel including Governor’s chief security officer to three and six months jail, allegedly for conspiring assassination attempt against another law Maker, Dominic Deng Mayom in August.
1st lieutenant Matiel Thiep, a chief security officer in the office of the state governor, was this week on Monday with other security personnel charged before the Court, presided over by the second grade judge, Malou Yel Akok. Sentenced to three months jail as the other three security personnel, who executed the order allegedly issued by governor Nyandeng to kill the state member of Parliament, have been sentenced to six month jail each , was charged with three counts of criminal offences – assassination attempt, abuse of office and violation of constitutional immune granted to the law maker .
The charges on count one – assassination attempt (murder), the accused is said to have between the months of July and August 2011, in the town of Kuacjok, capital of Warrap State, seen mobilising armed criminals including members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army to kill the Member of Parliament.
On count two – abuse of office; the accused is alleged to have between the months of July and August 2011 abused his office by the virtue of being chief security in the office of the governor and head of the security service of the State government to wit: allowed security personnel under his direct command to arrest and torture a member of State Legislative Assembly without following appropriate constitutional procedure lest there was a case against him.
On count three violation of constitutional immunity -; the accused in the months of July and August 2011, by virtue of his position as the chief security in the office of the state Governor to wit: ignorantly decided not to abide by the constitutional requirement which states clearly that no criminal proceedings shall be initiated against the member of the Assembly, nor shall any measure be taken against him or her without seeking permission from the speaker of the Assembly.
The accused in his reaction to the facts revealed by the prosecutor said that he was loyal to State governor and doesn’t want any confrontation. He said that he took the responsibility for any oversight of the Office of the governor, claiming that the act was not intentional, pointing out that human beings are bound to forget. The presiding judge reportedly convicted the accused on counts one and three upon his own plea of guilty. He however said that count two was beyond the jurisdiction of his court. He later ordered for the convict to be remanded in prison custody.
While Sudan Tribune has not been able to independently verify judicial independence of the court’s ruling, many claims that the sentence by the high court of the governor’s close aides for attempting to kill a member of parliament, substantiates claim of the other member of parliament of governor’s intention to kill him.
“I have heard from honourable Ariec Mayar Ariec report that the Governor intends to kill him but I did not take him seriously until I also heard from another person a week ago here in Juba, so I decided to approach governor about this serious allegations but she did not show an interest to discuss with the issue”, a senior security officer who comes from the governor’s home state told Sudan Tribune on Saturday. This was why we allowed our security members to tried before the court the court because we do not allow our officers to be used against other politicians by other rivaling politicians”, he said.
He said they have taken the report seriously to establish the fact and the would report it to the high authority asserting that such allegation constitutes clear national security issue which even warrant removal of the immunity of the accused in order to pave way for investigation if sufficient evidences are found. While attempt to reach governor failed as her telephone was found engaged in the first attempt and unreachable during the second attempt as the answering machine indicated, James Achi, a security advisor in the said he would not comment on such a serious allegation.
“This is a serious allegation which I can not comment on it because I still have clear information about it. Please contact the person being accused directly;” Achi said declining giving additional comments.
(ST)