DP urges MPs not to remove right to bail
DP deputy legal advisor Richard Lumu has warned fellow Parliamentarians that scrapping the right to apply for bail per President Museveni’s suggestion is huge trap that they should avoid falling into.
Lumu, the Mityana South Constituency MP, said that scrapping this right from the Constitution will only create another tool for President Museveni to oppress those he does not agree with.
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Lumu made these remarks while addressing the press at the weekly DP party presser at City House on Tuesday.
“The Members of Parliament should know this is a trap for them, if they accept to be used to remove the right to apply for bail, they will have created a tool of oppression which will be used against anybody including themselves,” Lumu said.
Lumu warned that the judiciary has been under attack for a while and acquiescing on the removal of the right to bail will further worsen the body's position.
He said, “An attempt to reduce the power of judicial officers in determining matters of bail application will only serve to fail the judicial independence further,” Lumu said.
Lumu added that whether the president’s move succeeds or not, the debate in itself has the effect of influencing Judicial officers with fiduciary relations with the President, as the same would be moved to exercise such power but to satisfy the desires of the patron, as the debate has been made clear.
He said that DP, as the crusaders of constitutionalism and rule of law, will continue to condemn the scrapping of the right to apply for bail on capital offences and asked other legislators to resist the move as well.
