Thirty people including nine officers of the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) and an opposition Member of Parliament have been arrested on suspicion of plotting to topple President Museveni’s recently inaugurated government.
Defence and military spokesperson Lt Col Paddy Ankunda confirmed Police yesterday detained the nine UPDF soldiers including the two unnamed officers who are in-charge of the armoury at the Bombo army headquarters, and separately interrogated Nakawa MP Michael Kabaziguruka and over their alleged links to the unnamed rebel group.
Available information indicates that MP Kabaziguruka, a very close ally to former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) presidential candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye, was yesterday detained, released on police bond but put under house arrest at his Luzira home.
Mr. Besigye is currently on remand at Luzira prison on treason charges for allegedly swearing-in himself as the president of Uganda.
Critics of the ruling NRM party say Museveni’s government is using the case as revenge on the opposition strongman and his follower’s defiance campaigns and insistence on having an international audit of the February presidential elections in which Mr. Museveni was announced the winner with over 60% of the vote.
And fuelling charges of a witchhunt, police on Friday morning searched the headquarters of the FDC before heading to his home in Kasangati, Wakiso District.
“He said they asked him about rebel activities he didn’t know. They (detectives) said they had arrested Uganda People’s Defence Forces soldiers, who linked him to a rebel group,” FDC spokesman Ibrahim Ssemujju is quoted by Daily Monitor after visiting MP Kabaziguruka at Special Investigations Division headquarters yesterday.
Mr Ssemujju also quoted MP Kabaziguruka, as saying detectives asked him about Gen Sejusa and Dr Besigye’s links with a rebel group to which some serving military officers are members.
“He said they also asked him about Dr Besigye and Gen Sejusa’s links to the same rebel group,” Mr Semujju added.
Meanwhile, local media reports indicate that early this week police arrested seven suspects among them an FDC village chairman from Aliba Sub-county, on grounds that they were behind an alleged rebel recruitment that led to abduction of 23 locals from Yumbe and Moyo districts three weeks ago.
Also held in Gulu town is Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) party deputy secretary for mobilisation, Mr Dan Oola Odiya, reportedly known for his anti-government views.
