Gabriel Duop Lam, the Minister of Labor, Public Service and Human Resource Development, has resigned, the minister of information has confirmed.

Mr Duop was a representative of the SPLM in Opposition in the Transitional Government of National Unity.

The Minister of Information, Michael Makuei Lueth, confirmed the resignation this afternoon.

“Mr. Gabriel Doup Lam has defected, and earlier of course, as you know, his Deputy [defected]. So the Ministry of Public Service at present is being run by the undersecretaries,” he told reporters after a meeting of the Council of Ministers in Juba.

“As you know very well that this ministry is one of the ministries which were given to the SPLA –IO and they are the one in charge of it.

“IO will issue a press statement; they will be talking about what happened in the case of Gabriel Duop Lam.”

The ministry is allocated to the opposition in line with the August 2015 peace deal.

Before becoming the minister of labor in the TGoNU, Mr Duop was appointed deputy minister of Interior in April 2016.

He also held various government positions at state level before December 15, 2013.

In 2011, he was the Minister of Law Enforcement in the former Jonglei state. Prior to that, he served as the commissioner of the now defunct Ayod County.