National Unity Platform (NUP) president Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine has said he and other party leaders are set to deliver a petition to the Chief of Defence forces Gen David Muhoozi demanding for the immediate release of party supporters detained before, during and after the 14th January 2021 polls.
Kyagulanyi made his plans public on Tuesday in a press conference held at NUP headquarters in Kampala.
“We want to deliver a letter demanding our people… and call on them to release our people that have continued to be abducted by the military. President Museveni came out and said it is the military that has abducting our people” Bobi Wine said.
The delivery of the petition is set for today according to Kyagulanyi.
This comes a day after he (Kyagulanyi) together with other NUP leaders were briefly arrested and questioned over city protests which the authorities consider unlawful. Uganda Police drove Bobi Wine to his home on Monday evening after arresting him during a protest over what he calls human-rights abuses by security agents against his supporters.
The spokesperson for Uganda Police CP Fred Enanga stated that while peaceful protests are allowed, the organizers usually fail to control their supporters and the planned protests spiral into criminality which police cannot allow. Enanga said police has bolstered operations within and around the city to neutralize protesters.
Kyagulanyi however adds that if the letter is not respected, peaceful demonstrations will continue despite security warnings.
He also said yesterday’s action by police when they chose to dump NUP leader at their homes after a brief arrest is testimony that peaceful arrests are constitutional.
Wine, 38, was runner-up during presidential elections in January that handed the victory to President Yoweri Museveni for a sixth term. During the lection period many of his supporters were arrested and several of them are still under detention.
Bobi Wine recently announced nationwide protests in a bid to salvage what he calls a stolen victory after his attempt to have the matter resolved by the Supreme Court also failed. He himself opted to withdraw a presidential petition he had filed in court and said it was time for the “Court of public opinion” to act.
“The right to protest peacefully is a fundamental human right. We are protesting for hundreds of missing Ugandans whose families have not heard from them for months! Those who have showed up have been grossly tortured, castrated, fingernails plucked out, eyes smashed,” according to a tweet on Wine’s account.
Bobi Wine also took a swipe at President Museveni following the latter’s accusation that NUP cheated the presidential election to get the 35% as was announced by the Electoral Commission. He said the president’s statements confirm that the election was marred with gross irregularities and confirms why NUP demands for an independent audit in the lection.
He dared Museveni to order fresh elections or allow an audit into the 14th January election which he says will again prove that he (Bobi) legitimately won with a landslide.
