UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe's Chief of staff Sagala Ratnayaka, in a statement today, reiterated that the appointments made by the new government are illegal. 

"Some officials who received illegal appointments from an illegitimate, unconstitutional government have recalled the staff members of the legal and constitutional Prime Minister of the country and are also attempting to take over his official residence," Ratnayaka said, in a statement, he issued in his capacity as the Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister.

"Since the so-called Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa took oaths on Friday, We have constantly maintained that the appointments made by an illegal government have no legal status. We reiterate that such illegitimate orders will bear no validity under a legal and constitutional government and those who obstruct the functioning of the duly appointed Prime Minister will be severely dealt with, in a court of law. 

The duty of the state officials is to uphold the constitutions and any digression from the law of the land and the constitutional framework is a punishable offence. The UNP has arrived at an agreement with many political parties to comprehensively defeat the so-called government, which has neither a mandate nor international recognition, when Parliament is convened next week.