Bahr el Ghazal student leader denies backing calls for Kiir to step down

July 3, 2014 (RUMBEK) – The leader of the Bahr el Ghazal students union in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, has dismissed reports saying he had backed calls by the council of elders for South Sudanese president Salva Kiir Mayardit to step down.

In statement issue by Joseph Achuil Chok, the union chairman condemned the publication of what he described as “baseless” propaganda, which he said aimed to distort the image of students from the Bahr el Ghazal region and East Africa as a whole.

Choc was reacting to an article published by Sudan Tribune on 30 June in which an executive member named as Daniel Garang Yel questioned Kiir’s political credibility.

However, the leadership of the Bhar el ghazal students union in Uganda has since dismissed that article in its entirety.

“It was insinuated that we have backed the calls by Bhar el Ghazal elders for president Kiir to step down. We therefore deem the article as fictitious, concocted and fabricated information,” Chok said.

He said there was no executive member registered with the union by the name of Daniel Garang Yel.

Reports emerged earlier this week that Bahr el Ghazal elders had allegedly held discussions with Kiir advising him to stand aside before the next elections in order to preserve unity among the South Sudanese people and prevent further disintegration.

However, Chok also called into question those claims, saying he had spoken to elders in the region, who had denied making any statements to that effect.

Kiir was born in the Bahr el Ghazal region of north-western South Sudan, which is widely viewed as a government stronghold.

(ST)