NAGGALAMA — Bobi Wine and other People Power coordinators and Member of Parliament including Asuman Basalirwa and Latif Ssebagala have been granted Police bond on Monday night after spending several hours in police cells at Naggalama Police Station about 30km away from Kampala.
Bobi Wine and other leaders was detained at Naggalama Police Station and Kasangati Police on Monday as the youthful MP sought to kick off public meetings before an election next year.
Bobi Wine, who is the leader of People Power was scheduled to begin on Monday a week-long series of consultations ahead of the 2021 presidential poll.
Police, however, blocked him from holding his first consultative meeting and ordered tent and music service providers off the place arguing the grounds are open and consultations should be in closed spaces.
Police later increased the deployment and closed off all roads to the venue.
The Police backed by armoured cars and water cannon used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.
“We are temporarily holding them in our police station in Kasangati. We shall have to release them at some later stage but we are looking at charges of holding an unlawful assembly and disobedience of lawful orders,” said Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga.
Enanga said Bobi Wine was planning an illegal public assembly before Police transferred him to Naggalama police station.
His international lawyer Robert Amsterdam has since warned Ugandan authorities on the arrest off his client MP Robert Kyagulanyi, saying it represents a dangerous escalation of human rights violations.
The outspoken lawyer Amsterdam who said he would give an update on the youthful MP’s arrest made the comments through a twitter post after his client Bobi Wine was detained at Naggalama Police Station.
“Our client Bobi Wine and others have been arrested without reason by Uganda security forces and are being held at Naggalama police station amid reports of violent crackdowns against protesters. We denounce this violation of basic rights and will update on the situation soon,” he wrote.
Speaking to journalists briefly, Bobi Wine said his consultation programme remains as scheduled. He said he will hold his second meeting in Gulu on Tuesday January 7.
