Mary Namuyanja, the wife of Martin Lukwago, a supporter of the National Unity Platform-NUP who is said to have been abducted on November 23, 2020, has denied knowing the man who was paraded by the Kayunga Resident District Commission-RDC and District Internal Security officer yesterday.
Kayunga RDC Moses Dumba together with the DISO Barasa Kildon, paraded a man who called himself Martin Lukwago who they said is on the list of the NUP supporters who have been reported missing.
The paraded man said he wanted to meet President Yoweri Museveni, the Speaker of Parliament and the Prime Minister to water down the lies that NUP has been peddling that its people had been abducted by security forces. He added that contrary to what NUP says, he was never arrested but rather had an accident and spent some time at Mulago Hospital receiving treatment.
Lukwago added that while in Mulago, members of the National Unity Platform reached out to him asking him to claim that he was tortured by government agents and later disappeared. Lukwago said that he has since been living in Kamuli village, Kangulumira sub-county in Kayunga district.
But Namuyanja told reporters at the NUP headquarters in Makerere Kavule that she has never seen the man who claimed to be Martin Lukwago one of the 18 people NUP says have been missing for over three years.
She added that instead of spending time spinning the story, the government should tell them where their people are because she has been to all possible offices to find her husband, in vain. However, Namuyanja said that while this man could be Martin Lukwago, he was not the one she was looking for.
NUP Secretary-General David Lewis Rubongoya said they were taken aback to see the RDC parading a person they have never looked for. Rubongoya said the government should provide answers to the whereabouts of their supporters instead of wasting time on public stunts.
Rubongoya also criticized the State Minister of Internal Affairs David Muhoozi for presenting a report in parliament about the NUP abducted supporters that he said was full of inaccuracies. Contrary to what Muhoozi said that the relatives of the disappeared were not cooperative, Rubongoya said they have given all the information that is needed for the identification of these people.
Rubongoya equally had no kind words for the chairperson of the Uganda Human Rights Commission Mariam Wangadya who said that NUP doesn’t want the issue of the disappeared persons to end because they gain political capital from it. He said they are not willing to allow the issue to slip away until they get the answers they need.
Members of the opposition in parliament have stayed away from plenary sessions until the government provided answers about the said missing persons and the abuse of human rights that is prevailing in the country. Last week, Muhoozi presented a statement on the abuses but the opposition led by its leader Mathias Mpuuga said the answers were not satisfactory.
