It’s your duty to remove NRM, Amuriat tells Luweero voters

Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party presidential candidate Patrick Oboi Amuriat has urged the people of Luweero, Nakaseke and Nakasongola districts not to give President Museveni another opportunity to destabilise Uganda if he loses the January 14, 2021 presidential elections. 

Mr Amuriat said the people of the Luweero Triangle offered Museveni a base where he launched a guerilla war that brought him to power in 1986 but they have nothing to be happy about after 35 years of his reign.

“I keep hearing President Museveni saying he will go back to the bush when he loses the elections. I ask you not to accept him to come here again,” Mr Amuriat told cheering supporters in Nakaseke town at the weekend.

Mr Amuriat implored the people of Luweero and the neighbouring districts to mobilise their people to vote out Museveni whom he said abandoned them shortly after capturing power.

“You people of Nakaseke and Luweero have a responsibility to remove the dictator. Those people are enjoying on your behalf so time is now to vote them out,” Mr Amuriat said.

He said the livelihoods of the people of the area were destroyed during and after the war when government stopped cooperative societies and other income generating activities. 

Mr Amuriat said his government will compensate all those who died during the war and adequately resettle the war veterans who have been abandoned by the current regime.

“The FDC government starting from May next year will make sure your lives improve,” Mr Amuriat said.

He added that the Sub-region being an agricultural centre, the government will focus on increasing funding to the agriculture sector so that production increases. 

During Mr Amuriat’s campaign, there was heavy security deployment in Luwero, Nakaseke and Nakasongola districts.
As has become the norm in Mr Amuriat’s campaign, he was intercepted by police on his way to Lake Kyoga after addressing supporters in Nakasongola.

He was driven straight to Nakaseke District without addressing voters in Luweero and other parts of Nakasongola, contrary to his campaign programme for the day. 

At Nakaseke, Mr Amuriat refused to vacate the police patrol car that carried him and instead used it as podium to campaign. 
After he finished his speech, he ‘ordered’ the police to drive him to the next destination since they had taken over his transport unit.

A section of the voters claimed that security had denied them opportunity to voice the challenges affecting their areas.
Ms Lydia Nantongo, a resident of Nakasongola Town Council, said she is unhappy that the voices of the fishing community have not been heard by the presidential candidates.

“We lost income and business when government quarantined Lake Kyoga in 2018. It is unfortunate that when the ban was lifted, the UPDF only registered individuals that could afford the Shs1.7m for the new standard boats,” she said.

At Nakaseke Saza in Nakaseke District, Ms Zaitun Nabawanuka, who claimed to be a daughter of one of the former Bush War combatants at Mwanga Unit in the early 1980 liberation war, claimed that her father’s effort during the struggle were never appreciated by the NRM government.

“My father died in 2014 before he could access his liberation war gratuity as promised by the NRM government. It is true we have peace but NRM lies make us bitter as families that contributed to the struggle,” Ms Nabawanuka said.

Bush war
Museveni launched his bush war in 1981 in the Luwero Triangle where he established bases. Eventually, in 1986 he toppled the military junta of Gen Tito Okello who had overthrown President Milton Obote’s government six months before.

Hundreds of thousands of people were also killed during the five-year rebellion.
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