KAMPALA -The Leader of Opposition – LoP, Mathias Mpuuga met with the Prime Minister, Robinah Nabbanja on Thursday – discussing issues related to the missing opposition supporters but nothing tangible could be registered.
The two met in the office of the Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa at the Parliament Building in Kampala. Others in attendance were the Minister of Defence – Vincent Ssempijja; the Minister for Information and National Guidance, Dr Chris Baryomunsi – and the Government Chief Whip – Hamson Obua.
The Thursday meeting was a follow-up of a similar gathering where Mpuuga was tasked to submit a list of alleged missing opposition figures against places of their respective abductions.
In March 2021 the opposition presented before Parliament a list of 423 missing people. This was after the Minister of Internal Affairs; Gen Jeje Odongo tabled before the House a list of 177 gazetted detention facilities. But Mpuuga differed with a list of missing supporters upon the request, in a meeting, which Thomas Tayebwa Deputy Speaker chaired.
On Thursday, Mpuuga declined to submit a fresh list of the abductees, requesting the Prime Minister to retrieve records before Parliament.
“In the meeting, today, the Prime Minister and her team were asking for better particulars of those persons and I do not wish to submit again.
“They actually know where these people are. I was generous enough over the past and offered the names of these people including their family members,” said Mpuuga after the meeting.
He said that the Deputy Speaker had given the Prime Minister up to Tuesday next week to provide answers about the missing people.
Tayebwa told parliament in a communication during the afternoon plenary sitting: “In a follow-up with issues to do with a response of government on cases of people whom the opposition reported to have disappeared and the government had not yet come out to clearly state whether it had them or not; we held a meeting and in that meeting, we found that the documents we had were not conclusive, so the meeting was not concluded,” revealed Tayebwa.
He told the MPs that the all parties had agreed to meet again on Tuesday to sum-up the matter – the same day a report on the same issue will be read to the House.
Additional reporting by URN
