National Unity Platform (NUP) is on spot for being behind the continued abductions and torture claims of citizens especially opposition supporters in the country.
This was revealed today Wednesday 1st march 2023 by a one Mwesigwa Eric an alleged torture victim while addressing a presser at Ministry of defence and veterans affairs headquarters in Mbuya, Nakawa Kampala.
Mwesigwa confessed that he was lured by NUP leadership to have wounds inflicted on his body and was promised UGX50M which was not fulfilled after the mission was accomplished. He also revealed that opposition NUP owns a drone vehicle which they use to stage the abductions of their supporters.
“I have come to inform the general public that I was not tortured by security forces but it was just an agreement between me and NUP and my brother Joseph Kaddu was the next victim in April,” Mwesigwa stated.
Before Mwesigwa’s confession, on February 13th 2023, Bobi Wine posted on his different social media pages very disturbing photos of Mwesigwa with wounds and scars all over his body claiming he was abducted, tortured and burnt on his chest using a flat iron by government security operatives.
However, this allegation has been debunked by the alleged torture victim and security agencies who claim NUP is using them as scapegoats for political favor and sympathy.
This is not the first time that media reports have accused opposition politicians especially Bobi Wine and NUP party of using torture and abduction claims to build their political capital and grow donor funds.
On November 17th 2022, Ugandan opposition politicians including Bobi Wine paraded about 100 alleged torture victims at the Uganda Human Rights Accountability conference organized by Kenya Human Rights Commission in Nairobi Kenya.
However, it was later established many of the paraded individuals were victims of normal accidents occasioned by Boda-bodas and other incidents. They included among others Ssebuganda Richard, who lost his hand in a student’s strike at Makerere University in 2020 and Kamuswaga Moses who was injured trying to detonate a tear gas canister in 2012.
Uganda Human Rights Commission has since also warned Bobi Wine and NUP to desist from using torture claims for political gain as well as interfering with the investigative work of security forces.
