Godfrey Olukya
17 February 2021•Update: 17 February 2021
KAMPALA, Uganda
Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine has petitioned the UN, saying the rights of his supporters are being violated.
Wine, whose given name is Robert Kyagulanyi, on Wednesday, presented a petition to the UN Commission on Human Rights complaining about security agencies arresting, abducting, and kidnapping his supporters.
According to Hezekiah Bwegire, his press secretary, Wine went with three people to the UN office in Kololo in the capital Kampala to present the petition after police warned him against going with a crowd.
Bwegire told Anadolu Agency on the phone: “Wine has presented his petition to the UN human rights office. He left his home at 10.00 am with three people and headed to UN offices at Kololo where he presented the petition.”
Bwegire said Wine has petitioned the UN because he is not happy with the way his supporters are being arrested and tortured.
Yesterday Wine called on relatives of abductees to join him as he took the petition to UN offices but police warned him against doing so.
Patrick Onyango, the spokesman for the Uganda metropolitan police, said: “Because of COVID-19 we could not allow Bobi Wine to move with a procession to UN offices at Kololo. The UN office informed us that he was permitted to go there with only three people.”
Since elections last month, over 200 people, mostly members of Wine’s NUP political party, have reportedly been abducted from their homes at night by security agencies and taken to places unknown.
At a press conference on Monday, police admitted that it is holding some NUP members suspected of being involved in terrorism. It said some of the suspects had hurled petrol bombs at government vehicles.
