AMURIAT: I am still in charge of FDC

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The President of the Forum for Democratic Change-FDC Eng Patrick Oboi Amuriat has dismissed the resolution to suspend him and other party leaders.

On Tuesday, an extra Ordinary Delegates Conference convened in Kampala by the FDC Party National Chairman Wasswa Birigwa resolved to suspend Amuriat, the party Secretary General Nathan Nandala Mafabi, and the Treasurer Geoffrey Ekanya.

The meeting appointed an Interim committee with Erias Lukwago, who is the Party Vice President in charge of Buganda as the Party President, Harold Kaija who is the Deputy Secretary General as the General Secretary, and Francis Mwijukye, the Deputy Treasurer as Treasurer.

Speaking on Thursday at the party headquarters where several members of FDC convened to pick nomination forms ahead of a delegate’s conference in October, Amuriat dismissed the Tuesday resolutions saying that those appointed were leaders of Katonga. He described the Tuesday meeting as another attempted coup at the legitimate leadership of the FDC.

Amuriat accused Birigwa of convening an illegal delegates conference. He also revealed his intentions to suspend Birigwa and other party leaders for paying allegiance to Katonga and failing at their mandate. His plan, however, he said is still being failed by the party’s working committee.

The party is split into two factions after the Spokesperson Ibrahim Semujju Nganda convened FDC delegates at Sharing Hall in Nsambya Kampala and informed them that the Secretary-General Nandala had received billions of “dirty” money which he together with Amuriat used luxuriously during the 2021 elections. The allegation although made officially public by Ssemujju, originated from FDC’s founding party President Dr Kiiza Besigye way back in 2020.

The allegations denied by Nandala positioned him, Amuriat, and other top party officials on one side and Besigye, Ssemujju, Lukwago, Mwijukye, and others in another faction.

Attempts to reconcile the two sides have since failed, creating two factions, with Nandala based at the party headquarters and Dr Besigye at his office at Katonga in Kampala Central.

But Amuriat said that the events at the Katonga-based FDC members are meant to force him and others out of the party leadership. He said that when he assumed the leadership of the party, they wanted him to work under their armpits which he could not accept.

He apologized to the members of FDC for appointing Lukwago as his deputy, saying that he made a wrong judgment of someone who had turned out to be a mercenary of FDC members who are based at the Katonga office.        Amuriat said that those who want to take up positions in the party should participate in the ongoing election process.

He said that he shall stand for party President and plans to canvass for support countrywide starting next week.

Nandala revealed that he would contest for the position of Secretary General of FDC. He again denied taking money from suspicious sources with the intention of mortgaging the party. He bragged about being an intelligent man, and his other colleagues too, such as Yusuf Nsibambi.

He criticized those accusing him of working with President Yoweri Museveni and the National Resistance Movement-NRM party in anticipation of a government position.

Nandala said that he has the confidence of lawyers that the election process the party is undertaking is legal.

Mawokota South Member of Parliament, Yusuf Nsibambi, one of the lawyers in FDC also assured members that the electoral process was legal and legitimate having been confirmed by the party’s National Council and the National Executive Committee-NEC.

Nsibambi said that whatever happened at Katonga was illegal and that leadership can only be acquired through a known electoral process.

The faction-based at the headquarters is scheduled to have a delegates’ conference on October 6, 2023.

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URN