The People Power pressure group leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu commonly known as Bobi Wine has cautioned President Yoweri Museveni to stop using Covid-19 pandemic to torture the opposition yet other people are breaking the regulations.
The Kyadondo East Member of Parliament who was addressing journalists on Monday at People Power headquarters in Kamwokya said that government has continued to shy away from National Resistance Movement (NRM) leaders who have continued to violate Covid-19 guidelines while giving out relief food to their voters.
Following the outbreak of Covid-19, President Museveni put up some strict directives to prevent the disease from spreading, among these was banning distribution of food by individual people. However, some NRM members have violated the directive and have since walked scout-free. But when it comes to the opposition members,it becomes a different story; they have been arrested and some brutally beaten.
“It’s unbecoming for the state to persecute opposition politicians like Hon Francis Zaake who followed the guidelines yet the NRM MPs who violate the social distance rule in broad daylight are left free. So we assert that no one should be above the law and we also demand that persecution of opposition leaders should stop and the state stop using the Covid-19 pandemic clamp down on the descent,” he said.n
Bobi Wine also demanded the government to take actions against the NRM leaders who violated the Covid-19 guidelines of social distance rule in their quest to give out relief to their voters. These leaders include: Haruna Kasolo of Kyotera county and the Minister of State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development (Microfinance). Anifa Kawooya from Ssemababule and state minister for primary education Rosemary Sseninde.
Meanwhile, Bobi Wine also demanded the government to release the Mityana Municipality Member of Parliament Francis Zaake Butebi because he committed no offence.
“We demand Zaake’s unconditional release so that he can access good health care of his choice without any interference of the security agents. There is no law in Uganda that forbids people from giving out food, so he did no wrong, secondly, Zaake spent more than 48 hours in the police cell, legally he can be released unconditionally,” he said.
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