Prime
NUP is not a party of killers – LoP
Nyendo-Mukungwe MP-elect Mathias Mpuuga (right) displays his National Unity Platform (NUP) membership card as the party’s president, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine looks on - August 13, 2020. PHOTO | MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI
What you need to know:
- According to the NUP top leadership, government has failed to provide security to the people in the villages of Masaka City.
The Leader of Opposition (LoP) in parliament, Mr Mathias Mpuuga has said that the opposition ‘‘National Unity Platform (NUP) is not a party of killers’’ in reference to arrests of its members following recent deadly attacks by machete wielding gangs in Masaka City.
“Our DNA is doing civil politics. We are not militarists and we are not a group out there to do suicides. We are alive to other choices that other political groups have chosen but we chose to be what we are and that is who we shall remain,” Mr Mpuuga told the media at NUP head offices in Kamwokya yesterday.
On Tuesday this week, the Masaka Chief Magistrate’s Court charged NUP legislators Muhammed Ssegirinya and Allan Ssewanyana- with murder before remanding them to Kitalya prison.
The duo are accused of having a hand in the spate of killings by criminals that have left close to 30 people dead in the Masaka Sub-region.
About 70 suspects have since been arrested in connection with the night murders, of which 10 were charged in court with murder and attempted murder last Wednesday before being remanded to Masaka Ssaza Prison until September 15.
According to the NUP top leadership, the government has failed to provide security to the people in the villages of Masaka District.
Some ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) top officials, including President Museveni, have blamed the killings in Masaka on politicians, who they claim want to paint a bad image of the government.
Government spokesperson, Mr Ofwono Opondo said: “Well, government hasn't said NUP is for killers but perhaps it's only that the guilty mind is afraid. In any case it's possible that there’s a democratic-civil wing that's law abiding and another that's violent, anarchist and criminal in NUP.”
On Wednesday, Mr Mpuuga said opposition leaders informed parliament about the brutal murders but ‘‘the regime was reluctant to act and we even saw the security personnel in greater Masaka complaining and asking for fuel.”
Ms Lina Zedriga, the Northern region NUP deputy president expressed concern over other killings in the Karamojja Sub-region.
“We are surprised that as our MPs are being arrested and yet in Karamojja, many people are being shot dead by the government security saying that they are disarming them. There should be proper investigations into matters before people. We condemn this act in the strongest terms possible,” Ms Zedriga said at the press briefing.
