SPLM-IO lawmaker detained at Juba prison

Mark Anei Mading, a member of parliament from the SPLM-IO at the Warrap State Legislative Assemble, is spending days behind bars after being arrested on Friday.

The incident happened after the community of Ler Machar Anyar requested Mading to coordinate a meeting, and after the meeting, they went to Governor Aleu Ayieny Aleu’s home to present the outcome of the meeting to him.

Cirilo Kuol Dut said the lawmakers were from the constituencies of Tonj North, Tonj East, and Tonj West.

However, he said the group waited for two hours before the governor came to attend to them, and then they presented their letter.

Although he was not present at the meeting, Dut said he got the information when he went to visit Mading at the Juba northern Division police station.

“They presented their list of five people who were nominated, and then the governor told them that he wanted only one person to be on the list,” he claimed.

“He told them that they are youths and all from one side, and the group replied that it did not matter whether they were young [because] they were representing the community and they asked the Governor to consider their request.”

Dut said that is when things went wrong and they exchanged words, and the governor allegedly slapped Mading.

He said Mading ran away after he was slapped because he did not want to fight the governor, adding that later, Aleu’s bodyguards followed him and arrested him.

He claimed that the governor asked Mading if he was willing to leave SPLA-IO, but after the lawmaker declined the offer, he was flogged.

When asked for a comment, Governor Aleu said, “He came to attack me in my house, and I did not have an appointment with him; he came with about six people to my house.”

Also, an unverified document circulating on social media alleged that the governor was physically assaulted in his family house yesterday evening by a group of untrained SPLM-IO cadres over an issue that could have been discussed in the office during official working hours.

The document also stated that the group of the attackers who stormed Gen Aleu’s house in the late hours physically fought the governor after failing to secure favour from him on politically-related matters.

“Governor Aleu Ayieny Aleu did not beat any IO members; he instead survived an organized attack.”