The dispute among components of the Other Political Parties (OPP) – a party to the peace accord – on how to distribute three positions of deputy governors remains unresolved, a member of the group said Monday.

Kornelio Kon Ngu, the leader of the national alliance of political parties and a leading member of the grouping, Other Political Parties (OPP), told Radio Tamazuj that there have been disagreements in the outfit occasioned by the unilateral submission of a list for political appointments by one of their members – -minister of humanitarian affairs, Peter Mayen Majongdit.

“There is a problem in our group of the Other Political Parties (OPP). We have a minister (Peter Mayen Majongdit) from the group who wants to work alone without input and consensus from the rest of the members of the group. As signatories, we are six. We as a group decided that the six of us will agree on the distribution of the positions allocated to us so that there is balance and harmony. The minister decided by himself and with other people who are not part of us and came up with his own list,” Kon said.  

“And he acted unilaterally and said he is the head of the group. Our group consists of the National Alliance, there is Umbrella, African National Congress, there is USAP, etc. there are six parties. So he decided to come up with a list outside of and without consulting the group and submitted his list for appointments,” Kon added.

According to Kon, this created an impasse and delays because the main group also came up with and submitted a list and this has created confusion. He said there is the list submitted by the minister and another list by the group of six signatories.

“He acted as if he was the leader of the wrong group. But we hope to sit down all together and resolve the issue between today and tomorrow,” Kon said. “Yes he submitted his list and we had requested that he come to a meeting to resolve the problem but he was reluctant. Yesterday I talked to him and asked him to come today at 9 am so that we sit down and resolve the issue. So I am sure if we do not solve the problem today then we will tomorrow.”

Asked where the minister got his list of three people from, Kon said: “He is the one who knows, maybe these are people with him. We do not know. This peace agreement now has its dynamics so he might have people who support him who tell him what to do. Some of these people might not want peace so it is not clear.”

Kon said the government should work with the group.

“We sat down and agreed on how to divide the positions. There are three positions, there is a minister, deputy minister and there is the head of the assembly,” Kon explained. “So the three positions will go to different parties with the group of parties. Equally, in the states, the three positions of the deputy governors will also be distributed fairly among the parties. So every party will get a position. So the minister went and did his things and this led to the delay.”

Asked who the head of their group is, Kon said, “The Other Political Parties (OPP) has no head. There are representatives from the different parties who meet, agree, and go and brief their respective parties.”

Calls to the minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management, Peter Mayen went unanswered.

Last week while addressing the press on the progress on the implementation of the peace agreement, the presidential security advisor, Tut Kew said three deputy governor positions were left vacant because the Other Political Parties had failed to reach a consensus on the matter.

“I want to assure all members of the press that consultations between political parties have concluded except on one issue which we have not agreed on but consultations are continuing. There is a disagreement between some of the other opposition parties led by our brother Peter Mayen Majongdit on allocations of positions of three deputy governors,” Tut said at the time.