Former National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu also known as Bobi Wine has petitioned the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen David Muhoozi and Defence Minister, Adolf Mwesigye, demanding answers over the missing party supporters.
As per the petition filed on the 16th March 2021, Kyagulanyi says a number of the party supporters have in the past few months been abducted by security operatives, mostly from the army without getting any answer to the cause of the actions.
In the petition, Kyagulanyi says his supporters are scattered in the different military facilities around the country.
“The few individuals who have surfaced have confessed to having been held at Makindye, Mbuya, Kalangala, Nakasongola, Kyengera and Kasajjagirwa military facilities. Others have been held from unknown centres run by the military personnel whereas Gen Museveni in his recent address stated that some of our missing supporters are in the custody of the Special Forces Command,” part of the petition reads.
He also says that in almost all cases, the missing supporters who have resurfaced have been tortured with visible torture marks that he insists have been inflicted by security operatives while in illegal detention.
“The purpose of this letter is to demand that all Ugandans still under illegal military detention are released immediately. We further demand that there is justice for those who have been tortured. The perpetrators must be brought to justice and the victims of torture must be compensated,” he says.
Kyagulanyi, in the same petition vents that the army should stop trying civilians in the General Court Martial as was the case for a number of his supporters.
Whereas government through the Ministry of Internal Affairs recently released a list of 117 people they said have been missing and are in detention, the opposition dismissed the same saying the number is bigger than that.
Robert Kyagulanyi presented a list of 423 supporters that he said are still missing and are suspected to be in the hands of security.
“We have so far verified 423 of our supporters who were kidnapped and are still missing. Gen. Jeje Odong only accounted for 89 of them,” he said.
However, the NUP leader said some of the names on his list had been found tortured whereas others were dead.
