Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) President Gen Mugisha Muntu warned on Saturday, four days after the arrest and detention of Col Kizza Besigye, that President Museveni should desist from using excessive force and money to suppress the opposition.
Besigye, the former FDC presidential candidate and runner-up in the February presidential election, was arrested in downtown Kampala after beating a 24-hour police siege at his home. He was flown and detained in the far northeastern Moroto district on May 11.
He was later arraigned in a court in Moroto on May 13 on treason charges for allegedly declaring himself the duly-elected president. At the Saturday press conference he addressed outside the locked FDC head office at Najjanankumbi, Gen Muntu said President Museveni and his regime have decided to use police and the army to suppress whoever they think is a threat to their hold onto power.
"He is now using excessive force, money and manipulation to ensure that he retains power, but using all those methods will not work; we only need to sit and look into the fundamental problems of this country," Muntu said.
"Even the security organs he [Museveni] is trying to use, the voting patterns clearly indicated that they are also pro-change and that is why he is panicking, he is even going to meet them at Kololo during the weekend [May 14]," he added.
Muntu told journalists that since Dr Besigye was arrested and taken to court without legal representation; FDC officials will meet Monday, May 16 to forge a way forward.
"One of the issues is, we want to see how we can send lawyers to Moroto for his rescue and to tell the country our way forward; he was paraded before court at around 6:30pm, and that shows how the regime is determined to suffocate the opposition," Muntu said.
According to security sources, Besigye was airlifted to Moroto at around 6pm after his arrest earlier on Wednesday in downtown Kampala. On Saturday, insider police sources said Besigye had been transferred from Moroto prison to Luzira prison.
Besigye was reportedly flown from Moroto on Friday evening. He returns to court on May 25.
NO- GO- AREA
Currently, the FDC party headquarters in Najjanankumbi is a no-go area. All regular party staff were arrested at the start of last week, according to the shadow finance minister Geoffrey Ekanya.
"You can even see now, we cannot access our offices and that is why the party president has addressed journalists outside his office," Ekanya said.
"Our chief administrative officer Rose Nassanga cannot also access the building; so, I don't know what Museveni wants us to do because these are our offices, not his," he added.
Interviewed for this story, the police officer in charge at the FDC office, who identified himself only as AIP Nabonghor, said it was not true that party officials were denied access to their offices.
"Those are lies, for us we are only protecting the scene of crime and we have marked those areas, where access is denied, they are free to enter their offices," Nabonghor said.
But earlier in the morning, one policeman said they have instructions from higher-ups not to allow anyone inside the FDC compound.
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