{"id":84325,"date":"2025-10-10T17:58:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T17:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/eastern-equatoria-ex-minister-illegally-claiming-office"},"modified":"2025-10-10T18:11:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T18:11:42","slug":"eastern-equatoria-ex-minister-illegally-claiming-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/eastern-equatoria-ex-minister-illegally-claiming-office","title":{"rendered":"Eastern Equatoria: Ex-minister \u2018illegally\u2019 claiming office"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Sudan. <\/strong><\/span>The government of South Sudan\u2019s Eastern Equatoria state said Wednesday it will pursue legal action against its former minister of parliamentary affairs, accusing him of falsely claiming to still hold office after being impeached in the past two years.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities allege that Joseph Opio Wilson Okullo, who was removed by the state\u2019s transitional legislative assembly in December 2022, has been actively engaging with foreign embassies and media while presenting himself as the legitimate minister.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe government of Eastern Equatoria state wishes to notify the foreign missions, government institutions, private institutions and the general public that Joseph Opio Wilson Okullo was impeached&#8230; and subsequently relieved of his duties,\u201d said Elia John Ahaji, the state\u2019s current minister of information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is no longer a minister&#8230; Hence, he has no official right to represent or act on behalf of the Eastern Equatoria state government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ahaji stated that the government was surprised to learn of Okullo\u2019s continued \u201cillegal engagement\u201d with various institutions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe engages illegally with foreign missions, government and private institutions as if he were still the state minister&#8230; which constitutes a criminal offense,\u201d Ahaji said.<\/p>\n<p>The information minister directed all organizations to only interact with Okullo in a personal capacity. He warned that the state government would not be responsible for any \u201cinconveniences resulting from dealings with such a ghost subject minister.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Okullo, a member of the Other Political Party (OPP), was impeached following allegations concerning the unauthorized sale of a ministry vehicle. He was replaced by Peter Gumbo, who is also from the OPP.<\/p>\n<p>Attempts to reach Okullo for comment on Wednesday were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n<p>South Sudan is governed by a transitional coalition government established under a 2018 peace deal, which shares power between the formerly warring parties at national and local levels.<\/p>\n<p>The OPP is a signatory to the 2018 peace agreement, the implementation of which has faced repeated delays and challenges.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Sudan<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Sudan. The government of South Sudan\u2019s Eastern Equatoria state said Wednesday it will pursue legal action against its former minister of parliamentary affairs, accusing him of falsely claiming to still hold office after being impeached in the past two years. Authorities allege that Joseph Opio Wilson Okullo, who was removed by the state\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":84324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233],"class_list":["post-84325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-south-sudan"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Eastern Equatoria: Ex-minister \u2018illegally\u2019 claiming office - South Sudan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The government of South Sudan\u2019s Eastern Equatoria state said Wednesday it will pursue legal action against its former mi ...\" \/>\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\/eastern-equatoria-ex-minister-illegally-claiming-office\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eastern Equatoria: Ex-minister \u2018illegally\u2019 claiming office\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The government of South Sudan\u2019s Eastern Equatoria state said Wednesday it will pursue legal action against its former mi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/eastern-equatoria-ex-minister-illegally-claiming-office\" \/>\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=\"2025-10-10T17:58:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-10T18:11:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/sites\/32\/2025\/10\/sm_1760107150.438662.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"754\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"331\" \/>\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\/eastern-equatoria-ex-minister-illegally-claiming-office#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/eastern-equatoria-ex-minister-illegally-claiming-office\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Eastern Equatoria: Ex-minister \u2018illegally\u2019 claiming office\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-10T17:58:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-10T18:11:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/eastern-equatoria-ex-minister-illegally-claiming-office\"},\"wordCount\":330,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/eastern-equatoria-ex-minister-illegally-claiming-office#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/sites\/32\/2025\/10\/sm_1760107150.438662.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Sudan\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/eastern-equatoria-ex-minister-illegally-claiming-office#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/eastern-equatoria-ex-minister-illegally-claiming-office\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-sudan\/all-news\/eastern-equatoria-ex-minister-illegally-claiming-office\",\"name\":\"Eastern Equatoria: Ex-minister \u2018illegally\u2019 claiming office - 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