Ex-oil minister Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth denies condemning NSS report

JUBA – South Sudan’s former petroleum minister Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth has denied that he had slammed the report released on Tuesday by the National Security Service (NSS) on those who planned what the government refers to as coup attempts in December 2013 and July 2016.

In the report whose release was directed by President Salva Kiir, the National Security Service found that First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny and Vice President Taban Deng Gai planned SPLA infighting in an attempt to remove President Kiir from power.

The SPLM-IO has urged the people of South Sudan to read other reports given by the African Union which found no evidence of coup and said it was studying the report and would respond to the national security service report in “due course” as it signals disagreement with the report.

In an article on social media, United States-based write Lul Gatkuoth Gatluak condemned the report and said the president’s security agency was making a pretext for return of the world’s youngest country to the deadly civil war which killed around half a million citizens.

But online users mistook him for the former minister of petroleum Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth who weighed in to distance himself from any news publication or opinion article discussing the National Security Service report.

“I am Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth Bangoang not Mr. Lul Gatkuoth Gatluak.  Any article circulating online under the name Mr. Lul Gatkuoth Gatluak is not me,” Gatkuoth said in a brief statement to social media users.