The Secretary General of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) has said slammed NUP leader Kyagulanyi Ssentamu for playing mind games on Ugandans by making what she called wild allegations against judges and turn around to withdraw from the court process he started.
This comes after Kyagulanyi instructed his lawyers to withdraw the petition in which he was challenging the election of Yoweri Museveni as president from the Jan 14, polls.
“It’s my opinion that political leaders should not use their selfish interests to put our institutions in disrepute. Kyagulanyi had originally said he was not going to court which was within his rights but later changed his mind to go to court which was still ok and now he is running away from court for reasons best known to him with all sorts of wild allegations,” she said.
The law says an application to withdraw the election petition shall have to be made in writing and If the application is granted ; the petitioner shall be ordered to pay the costs of the respondents thereto for incurred or such portion thereof as the court may think fit. The court shall direct that the notice of withdrawal shall be published in the office of the court.
Lumumba said former Presidential candidate Kizza Besigye was at once president Museveni’s personal Doctor, fellow combatant, NRM National political commissar but Right now is an opposition leader.
She added: “For Kyagulanyi to allege that Chief Justice Owinyi Dollo and Lord Chibita should recuse themselves because they ever worked with President Museveni is a far-fetched reason.
“President Museveni has been in the struggle at the top level for over 50 years and in so doing has worked with most senior leaders in this country.
Besides those justices are officers of the court who swore an oath to uphold justice and their decisions are based on evidence adduced not acquaintances.
Lumumba asked Kyagulanyi to refrain from “playing mind games on Ugandans since Political demagoguery will never see good in any situation or court process.”
“He started by lambasting the media notably NBS Tv for not declaring him the winner of elections as if NBS was the Electoral Commission. Then he went for the religious leaders and now he is turning his guns on the judiciary and the courts of law,” she said.
The National Unity Platform (NUP) president Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu said that Museveni’s former workers to pretend to be judges is a “mockery” of the justice system.
The National Resistance Movement party Secretary General Justine Kasule Lumumba said the petition withdrawal was just a matter of time since the petitioner had suffered numerous setbacks, including the 8:1 ruling against his application to add 130 affidavits to support his petition.
Recently During a news conference at the NUP offices in Kamwokya, Bobi Wine said: “We want to put the Supreme Court on notice that if this persists, we are not going to be part of that ‘mockery ‘ the next step is to take the matter to the public court.”
The Supreme Court had dismissed his application to amend the suit and include new grounds.
After the hearing of submissions by both Kyagulanyi and Museveni Legal teams, Justice Stella Arach Amoko who read the unanimous ruling dismissed Kyagulanyi’s application on grounds that the issues he intended to add to the petition had already been included in the original petition.
