Munyagwa dismisses Mwesigwa torture case as acting, warns NUP about moles in their ranks

Former Member of Parliament (MP) for Kawempe South, Mubarak Munyagwa has warned National Unity Platform (NUP) against some members he claims are being planted in the party as agents by the State.

Munyagwa was reacting to the recent incident of Eric Mwesigwa, who claimed he had been abducted and tortured by security officers but later backtracked on his claims, saying the injuries were self-inflicted for the promise of Shs 50 million by some NUP leaders.

Appearing on a talk show, Munyagwa said Mwesigwa is playing tricks on NUP, and cast doubts into his torture claims.

According to Munyagwa, had Mwesigwa been tortured, torture marks would be visible most especially on his hands. He wondered why most of Mwesigwa’s body parts appeared intact if indeed he had been tortured.

”If you take a closer look at Eric, you can see he has two burns; one on his left side of the chest and another on the right. I have been tortured before. No one can inflict harm on you when they have not handcuffed you because you would fight back,” Munyagwa said.

Munyagwa warned NUP of Mwesigwa and others he claims are being sponsored by the regime to discredit opposition political  parties.

“NUP and other political parties have to avoid that group. They (Mwesigwa’s group) always fight hard to take photos with opposition party leaders to assume allegiance with them. Some of them claiming to have been abducted by the state are just being trained as state agents,” Munyagwa narrated.

The former MP warned that government continues to plant people like Mwesigwa in NUP to cover its ‘gross’ human rights record from the Western countries and donors, and advised the opposition party not to fall into the trap.

“Now, they are resorting to paint a picture that it’s the opposition torturing people. What brought Kulayigye was to exonerate UPDF. He wanted to create an impression that UPDF is not involved in torturing Ugandans because embassies had picked interest in Mwesigwa’s story. They are playing PR games. It was purely a movie, as simple that.” Munyagwa said.

He warned that like it has been the case in Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), the regime will continue to plant political agents in NUP.