Warrap youth condemn minister’s assault on MP
November 22, 2013 (JUBA) – Warrap state youth organisation has condemned what it said was a disgraceful assault their Member of Parliament (MP) in Juba and demanded disciplinary measures taken against the concerned party.
While arguing in the premises of the national parliament in Juba, the national minister of environment, Abdallah Deng Nhial, and lawmaker Machok Majong Jong, representing Gogrial West county of Warrap state, took the law into their own hands when they resorted to physical fight on Monday.
Eyewitnesses said the two were arguing in a larger group on the fate of Abyei in the office of the chairman of the parliamentary affairs committee when the debate turned into quarrel and insults.
It was reported that Minister Deng Nhial, from Bor South constituency in Jonglei state, asserted that “Abyei was already a gone case as part of the South Kordofan” in north Sudan; a view point which angered Machok, calling Nhial “bad names” that resulted to the physical fight.
Nhial was a senior leader in the Popular Congress Party (PCP) of Hassen Al-Turabi and its candidate for 2010 presidential election. Recently he was appointed to the Juba cabinet portfolio in August following the 23 July reshuffle.
MP Majong on Tuesday tried to raise a motion in parliament, urging for a vote of no-confidence against minister Nhial because he slapped him, but a member of parliament told Sudan Tribune that the parliament’s leadership turned down the request as insignificant, telling the aggrieved MP to look for other legal avenues.
However, in a press statement issued by the youth calling itself Warrap State Youth Intellectuals Forum (WSYIF), signed by their chairman Peter Mayenwen Majongdit, the statement condemned the minister of environment, saying he slapped their MP.
“WSYIF calls on the national minister to apologise to the people of the constituency of Kuach North and South Gogrial West, because the act done by the minister disgrace the entire community of Gogrial West and the people represented by the Hon. Machok Majong Jong,” partly reads the statement.
They also demanded disciplinary measures taken against the national minister by the leadership, saying this will prevent future slapping of MPs who represent the people in government.
(ST)