South Sudanese president Salva Kiir has relieved Benjamin Bol Mel of his duties as a board member of the country’s Petroleum and Gas Cooperation, Nile Pet.

The development was announced in a republican decree read on state owned TV, the South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday evening.

In the decree, Kiir replaced Bol Mel with businessman Ladu Lukak.

Bol Mel was appointed by the President last year in December as a special envoy on special programs.

His removal from NilePet board members comes a month after he was appointed SPLM’s first deputy Secretary General for Political Affairs and Mobilisation replacing Akol Paul Kordit.