Presidential hopeful, Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine, has submitted 33,000 endorsement signatures three days after security agencies raided his party’s offices and allegedly stole 7 million signatures that had been earlier collected for the same cause.
Uganda People’s Defence Forces –UPDF, Military Police, Field Force Police and general duty police officers on Wednesday raided National Unity Platform –NUP offices in Kamwokya claiming they were picking attires that resemble those gazetted for security forces.
During the raid, more than 100 NUP members were arrested, 40 of them have since been charged while the fate of others is yet to be known. UPDF, police and other security agencies also allegedly stole 23 million shillings from NUP offices.
Bobi Wine said since the deadline for submitting signatures to Electoral Commission was October 17, NUP members quickly rushed to the field where they collected fresh signatures.
“Since the deadline for submission was Saturday 17th October, we did not want to give them any chance to play their usual games with us. We wrote asking for an extension of time, but also worked hard for two days to get fresh signatures. We activated our structures countrywide and collected a fresh batch of signatures,” Bobi Wine said.
Bobi Wine said it was easy to collect new signatures because there were a few districts whose signatures were still in the field by the time of the raid. This simplified the collection of new signatures.
“Yesterday, a team from our secretariat was able to submit 33,000 signatures from 109 districts of Uganda. The number of signatures required for nomination is 9,800 (100 signatures from 98 districts), so we surpassed the required number by far,” Bobi Wine said.
Since he declared contesting against President Yoweri Museveni who has been in power since 1986, Bobi Wine has faced and tested the wrath of both police and military forces.
He has been arrested and beaten to pulp including Arua fracas of August 2018 in which he was almost killed by President Museveni’s protection force the Special Forces Command. His music shows have been stopped in a bid to frustrate his financial sources.