By Philip Buda Ladu<\/p>\n
Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro, has lashed out at members of opposition, whom he claimed were exploiting journalists and bloggers to disseminate misinformation regarding peace process.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n This came after a social media rumour alleging that Dr. Elia was removed from the negotiation room by the chief mediator for being anti-Tumaini Initiative for peace in South Sudan.<\/p>\n He dismissed social media claims.<\/p>\n \u201cThis press is essentially to alleviate the concerns of our citizens and our people who know that we have come here to negotiate peacefully and to negate the negative social media campaign which has been engineered by the opposition and the whole groups and their friends all over the place,\u201d Lomuro said.<\/p>\n Lomuro, who is also the Rapporteur of the restructured delegation of the Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGONU) to the peace talks with opposition holdout groups in Nairobi, Kenya, clarified the situation during a press briefing on Monday.<\/p>\n Dr. Lomuro emphasized that he was particularly targeted with the propaganda because of his position not only as a rapporteur of the government but also as the Secretary General of the High-Level Standing Committee for the Revitalized Peace Agreement implementation.<\/p>\n \u201cI have the information that is ready to be used for negotiations and this seems to create a lot of fear among the other side\u201d Lomuro stated. \u201cBut I want to assure our people that I’m here. Lazarus Sumbeiywo is very responsible and a very well-known peace mediator. He cannot be described as someone who could chase the Senior Minister of Government Delegation.<\/p>\n The cabinet affairs minister criticized online news agencies for taking part in publicizing the propaganda adding that the station has been against the government of the Republic of South Sudan throughout.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I want to tell our people not to listen to the negative propaganda that is out there in order for them to lose trust in the government, to divide our delegation and to make them lose hope,\u201d Lomuro assured.<\/p>\n He further denounced the opposition for personally attacking him, fabricating stories about his stance on President Salva Kiir’s letter to President Ruto.<\/p>\n \u201cI came here as the rapporteur, and I possess all the necessary documentation,\u201d he reiterated. \u201cWe are deeply shocked by comments made by the Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Hon. Martin Elia Lomuro, a new government delegate to the Tumaini talks and a ringleader of the anti-Tumaini group,\u201d the statement stated.<\/p>\n On the progress of the talks, Lomuro emphasized that despite indifferences in levels of understanding where the opposition twists information to suit them, the government delegation will not be drawn into negotiating on social media or jeopardizing the peace process in social media.<\/p>\n \u201cWe came with a clear directive from the President that we should take back peace and that is our focus\u201d he reiterated their position. \u201cSo I hope I have clarified that I am here in full force as the rapporteur of the government delegation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n When asked about the progress of the talks, Lomuro was cautious, citing advice to limit media engagement during negotiations. However, he confirmed that the process is on track.<\/p>\n \u201cWe launched the occasion successfully. Then when we came to substantial issues, that’s where the problem is and that’s the nature of negotiations. It is never going to be smooth. It is never going to be without arguments,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Philip Buda Ladu Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro, has lashed out at members of opposition, whom he claimed were exploiting journalists and bloggers to disseminate misinformation regarding peace process. This came after a social media rumour alleging that Dr. Elia was removed from the negotiation room[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Dr.-Martin-Elia-Lomuro-Minister-of-Cabinet-Affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31537,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31535\/revisions\/31537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe opposition was not immediately available to respond to the allegation, but last week, SSOMA and other parties issued a statement blaming Dr. Elia Lomuro and called him a ringleader of the anti-Tumaini group.<\/p>\n