Ugandan Opposition Leader Purportedly Arrested upon Arrival From Abroad
10:21 06.10.2023 (Updated: 13:20 10.10.2023)
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - In January 2021, Wine ran for president, but the 76-year-old incumbent president of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, won 58.64% of the votes and remained in office for the sixth term. According to Uganda's Central Electoral Commission, Wine only received 34.83% of the votes.
The leader of Uganda's opposition National Unity Platform party, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, also known by his stage name Bobi Wine, has been arrested after his return to the country, the party said on Thursday.
"President Bobi Wine has been violently arrested upon his return to Uganda," the National Unity Platform wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The opposition did not recognize the election results, according to which Museveni won over 58% of the votes and Wine received about 34% of the votes, and started calling Wine "president."
Ugandan police had arrested the opposition leader several times before and after the election.
However, in a statement, the Ugandan police denied that Wine had been detained, instead asserting that they had just accompanied him to his home outside the nation's capital, Kampala.
“We wish to inform the public that the NUP President, Hon. Kyagulanyi Robert was successfully escorted by our security team from Entebbe to his home in Magere. He reached his home around 11.20 am, and is with his family and friends,” the police said in a statement posted on X.
Internal Affairs spokesman told local outlet Daily Monitor that this was done "because of the nature of the situation."
“If you have emergencies, certain things are handled extraordinarily. That is what happened in the case of Bobi Wine. We can’t afford to see people having issues; what we did was, first of all, to remove Bobi Wine because he was the centre of attraction for everybody who was at the airport,” he is quoted as saying.
The spokesman added that should Wine have gone through the usual immigration processes, "it would have caused some chaos at the airport, and [yet] the airport is a very sensitive place."
The police added that the sudden encounter was done to save the opposition politician from possible harm.
“We felt that having him go through immigration formalities would, first of all; cause a delay, give time for chaos to build up at the airport, what we did solved a security puzzle,” the spokesman said.
