The Forum for Democratic Change(FDC) leader, Patrick Oboi Amuriat, has condemned the increased attacks on security forces and demanded an official explanation from the Commander in Chief President Yoweri Museveni.
Amuriat’s remarks were contained in his end-of-year message about key highs and lows that transpired in the political arena.
He asked the government to beef up security in areas where police stations and outposts were merged following recent attacks on security installations in various parts of the country.
Amuriat warned that these mergers only prompted potential criminals to take advantage of the situation and terrorise vulnerable communities.
“The last quarter saw a series of security installation attacks by unknown assailants majorly in areas of Luwero where some security operatives have lost their lives. This led to the Uganda Police Force top leadership resorting to merging of numerous police posts in an effort to protect their officers’ lives from errant attacks,”he said.
He said the vacuum left behind in these areas has made them susceptible to criminality more especially in these times of economic hardship faced nationwide, so some criminal elements are taking advantage of the situation to terrorise the communities.
“Our concern is that Mr. Museveni is blaming these attacks on opposition leaders. This has been Museveni’s trick of arresting and detaining members of the opposition in order to suppress our voices, “he stated.
Amuriat also noted that this year saw the resurrection of high insecurity and inter communities’ skirmishes in Karamoja region coupled with cattle rustling and a whole lot of human rights violations.
“A government press release in September referred to 400 deaths, while the Karamoja Development Forum counted 600 deaths between 2019 and July 2021,” he said.
As FDC, Amuriat said they believe a lasting holistic solution with political will in hindsight is dialogue of warring factions, social economic interventions by IGAD member states.
He believes that this could be the case of ushering the whole region into transformation other than embarking on arms disarmament campaigns which have been going on forever without lasting peace.
