{"id":45201,"date":"2023-10-08T09:20:40","date_gmt":"2023-10-08T09:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/top-spla-io-commander-defects-to-president-kiir"},"modified":"2023-10-08T09:46:12","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T09:46:12","slug":"top-spla-io-commander-defects-to-president-kiir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/top-spla-io-commander-defects-to-president-kiir","title":{"rendered":"Top SPLA-IO commander defects to President Kiir"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Sudan. <\/strong><\/span>South Sudan\u2019s main armed opposition SPLM\/A-IO commander General Simon Maguek Gai on Saturday announced his defection from the group and said he was joining President Salva Kiir\u2019s ruling faction of the SPLM and SSPDF.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Sudans Post following the declaration which he made at the SPLM House in Juba earlier in the afternoon, Maguek said he defected along with other senior SPLA-IO officials because First Vice President Riek Machar who is the leader of SPLM\/SPLA-IO has \u201cprivatized\u201d the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am speaking to you now, I am a member of the mother SPLM under the leadership of His Excellency General Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Republic of South Sudan, and the commander-in-chief of the SSPDF,\u201d Maguek told Sudans Post on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cRiek Machar has destroyed the SPLM-IO and when we defected, we didn\u2019t know that it would be a family property as he has done now and this is the problem that he is trying to use everyone in the SPLM\/SPLA (IO) to achieve his personal benefits,\u201d Maguek said.<\/p>\n

He said he defected with General Dok Wanjang, former SPLA-IO commander for southern Unity State and four other officers with the rank of major-generals and said he is working to make sure that \u201cRiek Machar is abandoned for good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maguek is a former SPLA-IO commander for sector two in Unity State. Prior to the outbreak of war in December 2013, he was the speaker of the Unity State Legislative Assembly. Last year, Maguek turned down an appointment as a member of South Sudan\u2019s transitional parliament.<\/p>\n

Officials close to the main armed opposition group told Sudans Post at the time that the senior SPLA-IO general had demanded to be given a ministerial position, which Machar said was not going to be positive because they both held from Leer County.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Sudan<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Sudan. South Sudan\u2019s main armed opposition SPLM\/A-IO commander General Simon Maguek Gai on Saturday announced his defection from the group and said he was joining President Salva Kiir\u2019s ruling faction of the SPLM and SSPDF. Speaking to Sudans Post following the declaration which he made at the SPLM House in Juba earlier in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":45200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12,293],"tags":[234,265,233],"class_list":["post-45201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","category-to-homepage","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-sudan","tag-south-sudan"],"yoast_head":"\nTop SPLA-IO commander defects to President Kiir - South Sudan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"South Sudan\u2019s main armed opposition SPLM\/A-IO commander General Simon Maguek Gai on Saturday announced his defection fro ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/top-spla-io-commander-defects-to-president-kiir\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Top SPLA-IO commander defects to President Kiir\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"South Sudan\u2019s main armed opposition SPLM\/A-IO commander General Simon Maguek Gai on Saturday announced his defection fro ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/top-spla-io-commander-defects-to-president-kiir\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Sudan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-08T09:20:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-08T09:46:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/sites\/32\/2023\/10\/sm_1696745628.408541.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"850\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"472\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/top-spla-io-commander-defects-to-president-kiir#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/top-spla-io-commander-defects-to-president-kiir\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Top SPLA-IO commander defects to President Kiir\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-08T09:20:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-08T09:46:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/top-spla-io-commander-defects-to-president-kiir\"},\"wordCount\":325,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/top-spla-io-commander-defects-to-president-kiir#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/sites\/32\/2023\/10\/sm_1696745628.408541.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Sudan\",\"South-Sudan\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/top-spla-io-commander-defects-to-president-kiir#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/top-spla-io-commander-defects-to-president-kiir\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/top-spla-io-commander-defects-to-president-kiir\",\"name\":\"Top SPLA-IO commander defects to President Kiir - 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