By Deng Ghai Deng<\/p>\n
Jonglei State Governor Mahjoub Biel has officially suspended Minister of Finance, Planning, and Investment Abraham Riek Yuek after he lost a vote of no confidence in August 2022.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Yuek\u2019s impeachment stemmed from a failure to adequately address concerns regarding the delayed passage of the state budget and the non-payment of civil servants\u2019 salaries.<\/p>\n In a letter dated August 17, 2024, Governor Biel cited the vote of no confidence, a legal opinion from July 2024, and a reminder letter from December 16, 2024, confirming the minister\u2019s loss of legitimacy to hold office. Yuek had appeared before the state assembly two years ago, facing intense scrutiny over his handling of state finances.<\/p>\n His impeachment, which had been supported by the legislature, prompted immediate action from the Acting Speaker at the time, who urged former state governor Denay Jock Chagor to act against Yuek. On December 16, 2024, Speaker Amer Ateny Alier wrote to the new governor, reminding him of the parliamentary resolution to suspend Yuek for alleged mismanagement and misappropriation of public funds. Minister Yuek has rejected the suspension, claiming it is retaliatory rather than based on the impeachment. He argued that the move followed his recent suspension of a Director General in his ministry, who happens to be a relative of the current governor.<\/p>\n \u201cThe suspension is not at all welcome because to me it is a retaliation,\u201d Yuek said. \u201cIt has nothing to do with the impeachment.\u201d<\/p>\n He further questioned the timing of the suspension, suggesting that if it was genuinely about the 2022 vote, it should have been executed much earlier.<\/p>\n According to Article 99 of the state constitution, the governor is empowered to suspend any state minister facing charges.<\/p>\n The legal framework affirms that the suspension of the minister, in this case, follows the constitutional process for addressing charges against him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Deng Ghai Deng Jonglei State Governor Mahjoub Biel has officially suspended Minister of Finance, Planning, and Investment Abraham Riek Yuek after he lost a vote of no confidence in August 2022. Yuek\u2019s impeachment stemmed from a failure to adequately address concerns regarding the delayed passage of the state budget[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jonglei-state","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Suspended-Jonglei-Minister-of-Finance-Planning-and-Investment-Abraham-Riek-Yuek-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31832","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=31832"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31833,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31832\/revisions\/31833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cTherefore, effective immediately, he is suspended,\u201d Biel stated in his letter.<\/p>\n
\nHowever, Chagor responded by suspending two members of parliament in a move that shielded Yuek from consequences.<\/p>\n
\nThe head of legal administration in Jonglei also echoed the call for suspension, emphasizing the legality of such action.<\/p>\n