Relatives of persons who went missing during and after last year’s general elections have appealed to the National Unity Platform-NUP leadership to reconsider their position on negotiating for a possible release of the victims.
Over the weekend, NUP party leadership strongly rejected calls by some of its members to seek out government, to negotiate for the release of their supporters who were kidnapped during last year’s election cycle and remained in cells some in unknown locations.
The NUP party President Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Mathias Mpuuga Nsaamba, ruled out negotiations for the freedom of abductees describing it as ridiculous. They argued that it would be an act of treachery and an indictment against the victims who according to them are innocent.
However, relatives of the missing people are appealing to the NUP party leadership to find a middle ground with the government towards securing the freedom of the victims.
Peter Kanyamiganda, a resident of Bikira village in Kasaali sub-county, Kyotera district says that he has in vain searched for his son George Kasumba, who was abducted a year ago.
Kasumba who was contesting for the position of district councilor is among the nineteen opposition supporters who were arrested from Kyotera in February 2021, a day to the sub-county local government polls.
Kanyamiganda says despite the eventual release of the eighteen victims from security detention cells two and half months later, his son has never returned which has left the entire family unsettled.
He argues that following their long unsuccessful pursuits for their missing relative, the family is currently so desperate for any available options that can help them find the victim.
Kanyamiganda indicates that after exhausting all personal alternatives, their hopes are now in high-level engagements, thereby appealing to NUP leadership to reconsider their position and explore all possible avenues including opening up for negotiations that can lead to the release of the victims.
Agnes Nannono, the mother to Kasumba also indicates that the affected families are enduring untold pain over the missing relatives, calling upon NUP leadership to sympathize with them and support all efforts towards the release of the victims.
She says although they are not acquainted with which offenses of the victim, the family is mainly focused on having him regain his freedom from unknown incarceration cells.
She adds that the family is so desperate to find Kasumba in whatever state he may be in, indicating that they are so unsettled without knowing his whereabouts.
Meanwhile, the other victims who were arrested with Kasumba say they were abducted by security operatives who badly tortured them on allegations of plotting insurrection against the government.
Mpuuga, says the party shares the pain of the aggrieved families, however maintaining that it is unjustifiable to plead with a government that should instead be held accountable for all the transgressions against innocent Ugandans by its rogue operatives.
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