September 11, 2014 (SSNA) — The Editor-in-Chief of the South Sudan News Agency (SSNA), Duop Chak Wuol, has denied a media report that he was one of the fourteen (14) Nuer employees of a Chinese oil company who were recently sacked by the government of South Sudan.
The report also emphasized that the expulsed employees have links with the South Sudanese rebels.
Earlier this week, a news report by the Sudan Tribune (ST) claimed that Wuol was an employee of China’s Greater Pioneer Operating Company (GPOC) and that he was dismissed along with other staff members, citing unspecified links with the rebels.
In his response to the narrative of removal, Mr. Wuol says the media report is a misinformation, describing it as dubious and faulty.
“Here is the truth: I am the editor-in-chief of the South Sudan News Agency (https://ssnanews.com/ and I have never worked for South Sudan’s government, let alone the GPOC!.”, Mr. Wuol wrote on his social media page.
“Concisely, the Sudan Tribune’s news story is unjustified, flawed, and lacks logical grounds”, he observed.
The ST also published a statement which it attributed to the SSNA’s editor, Wuol. He denied knowledge of any formal interview.
“…the ST took one of my quotes from the internet and used it to make it appear as if I was quoted during the interview”, he continued.
“It is astonishing to see I believe idiom at the beginning of my original quote, in fact the statement published by the ST is a statement I said more than a year ago, there is nothing new about it, except the first eight letters”, Wuol told the SSNA.
“In the political dictionary of South Sudan’s government, any critical observation of government’s policies, actions, or the current conflict is defined as an anti-government stance; it is as simple as that”, he added.
Wuol, who is the current editor-in-chief of the US-based news agency, the South Sudan News Agency, has never worked for the government of South Sudan. The news of his alleged removal from the China-based oil giant, GPOC, sparked heated debates among South Sudanese and raise questions whether or not “ghost employees” exist on government payroll schemes.