National Unity Platform (NUP) principal Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) has rubbished the assurance by the leadership of the Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD) on his freedom after handshake with president Museveni in the coming summit.
Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) Secretary General Fred Ebil said that they have been engaging NUP leadership that no one is going to arrest their president when he returns to Uganda noting that signing the IPOD agreement will shield him.
“My brother Bobi Wine should accept that IPOD is here to shield him, no one will touch him, on that I assure him. We want him to sign the agreement to admit his party into the organisation in the presence of other party leaders instead of assigning another person to do it on his behalf,” Ebil said.
He revealed that Bobi Wine has created a challenging moment for them and they have decided to amend their recommendation to the heads of the political parties on admitting NUP into the organization.
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The council of Secretary Generals will convene next week to make a wider decision on the said issue.
“We have invited our experienced lawyers to advise us on how to engage this Bobi Wine issue, because the letter which extends the Acting president Lina Zedriga’s term of one month signed by Bobi Wine is also confusing. As an alternative, we think Bobi Wine has to sign Powers of Attorney for Zedriga to sign the agreement on his behalf to avoid misleading and confusing the public,” Ebil said.
He confirmed that IPOD summit will hold its first meeting at Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort next month and all presidents of the member political parties have confirmed their presence.
Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu also confirmed his presence to sign the agreement on behalf of his political party the Alliance for National Transition (ANT) which will be officially admitted into IPOD.
NUP through their party Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya officially wrote to IPOD requesting to be admitted so that they also have a share of the billions of moneys from the treasury. However, the law only allows the party president and his Secretary General to sign the final paper in the presence of other party top leaders.
After the signing of the agreement, political leaders shake hands, and sources claim that Bobi Wine is avoiding attending the summit because he doesn’t want to shake Museveni’s hands.
However, he is under pressure from fellow party leaders who want to join IPOD so as to get public funding to overcome the financial crisis which the party is currently going through.
“One of the factors why we lost in Kalangala by election was because of money. We did not have money to facilitate our candidate Irene Nampala, we urgently need IPOD money,” one of NUP leaders told this reporter.
Bobi Wine sneaked out of the country to United States of America after the 2026 presidential elections citing threats on his life, he was followed by wife Barbra Itungo Kyagulanyi and children after military raided their Magere home.
The Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba recently assured Bobi Wine that he will be arrested once he steps foot in Uganda.
