The ruling NRM party has said it missed a chance to expose the National Unity Platform’s Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine and his antics.
The Supreme Court on Friday allowed National Unity Platform leader, Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine to withdraw his presidential election petition that sought to overturn the incumbent President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s victory.
Addressing journalists on Sunday, the NRM director in charge of legal affairs, Oscar Kihika said withdrawing the petition was a missed chance for their lawyers to expose the “lies” by Kyagulanyi and his group.
“The public missed a chance to see clips of where the whole fracas started from and done deliberately even before they(Kyagulanyi) had not been arrested. I must say that the public missed some facts of Kyagulanyi’s defiance. He played the victim and sought public sympathy. The justification for his arrest is on record but the public missed an opportunity to see that side of the story. With this petition, the public would have seen the story in full, an opportunity that has been denied,”Kihika told journalists on Sunday.
Kyagulanyi, 38,the runner-up in the January 14 polls had petitioned the Supreme Court seeking to have the results nullified and a fresh election ordered.
He noted that the campaigns and the subsequent elections were not free and fair, rendering the outcome nugatory.
The presidential candidate in just concluded election said that his campaigns were always disrupted by police and on many occasions, they never happened, despite clearance from the relevant authorities.
“Contrary to section 3 and 2 of the Presidential Elections Act, officers of the Uganda Police Force and the UPDF on several occasions and in several parts of the country prevented the petitioner from carrying out his nationwide consultations in preparation for his nomination as a presidential candidate.”
Addressing journalists on Sunday, Kihika said Kyagulanyi played the victim card to attract sympathy yet he was on many occasions in the wrong.
Kihika cited an example of the nomination day where Bobi Wine disobeyed the police traffic program published in the newspapers, noting that despite being in the wrong, after his arrest, he blamed the police.
Falsehoods
The NRM director in charge of legal affairs noted that in the affidavits filed by Kyagulanyi were a lot of falsehoods that could not be accepted.
“Bobi Wine filed false affidavits yet he swore before the commissioner of oaths that they were true. We the respondents looked at them and filed ours in rebuttal. He was then given time to file affidavits in rejoinder, a thing he never did. He realized that his affidavits were fabricated given that we are living in the age of false and fabricated information,” Kihika said.
“If you go to the public records of the Supreme Court and look at the affidavits filed in response to the case that was stated by the petitioners, you will note that Bobi Wine from the very beginning was very clear that he was not to abide by the rule and directions set by the EC.”
However, National Unity Platform lawyers insisted they had a strong case but were only let down by the court which was biased.
