The founding Father of the Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Dr. Kizza Besigye has insisted that the party Secretary General Mr Nathan Nandala Mafabi, and the party president Mr. Patrick Amuriat Oboi brought into the party the Shs7Bn dirty money during the 2021 polls.
The dirty money which made Dr. Besigye almost cry during the Monday press conference was reportedly sneaked into the party by the two key suspects during the recent polls.
Shs7Bn is the State House money whose source was questioned by the four times Presidential candidate, prompting the party to establish a special elders’ committee led by Dr Frank Nabwiso which presented a report during the chaotic Friday special National Council meeting.
Dr. Nabwiso read a repeat to angry delegates that had been led by the party National Chairperson Ambassador Wasswa Birigwa.
The report whose credibility has since been questioned exonerated the key suspects Amuriat and Nandala.
Officials led by Mr Ibrahim Ssemuju Nganda the party spokesperson and Mr Erias Lukwago the deputy president for Buganda region rejected the findings of the report, accusing Nandala and Amuriat of doctoring it, the allegations the latter denied.
During the Monday, August 7, press briefing, Dr Besigye joined the rest of the members to reject the FDC elder’s committee report on dirty money claiming that the committee of elders didn’t make any slight attempt to establish the facts in spite of his pleas to do so.
“They didn’t check on the party accounts and records, they didn’t improve on the knowledge we had before they had they were informed in fact their only written finding is that this was a sensitive matter clearly, they didn’t attempt at all to find facts,” he explained.
Besigye further highlighted that neither in their findings nor in their recommendations did they seek to deal with the dirty money because even the minutes in it were recorded in a biased way.
“I don’t think that the value of this report is even equal on the paper on which it is, it’s totally worthless,” he asserted.
Emotional Besigye explained that such dirty money is given out to undermine those who seek to use clean means to get rid of the system and also to stop cooperation of all those who need a change in Uganda and its impact is to make parties moral less dysfunctional
In this briefing, Besigye also noted that because there are very many fault lines within the ruling government, this is time for them to push back and not be trapped in internal wrangles.
“We must pursue liberation as we solve our internal wrangles, I invite all our people who are in disputes to become more vigilant on the two missions of liberating both the country and the party,” he highlighted.
Meanwhile, Dr. Besigye also denied the accusations of having selfish interests in the party even after completing his two terms in office.
“Some people accuse me of having selfish interests in FDC, I cannot and no longer seek to be a leader in the FDC, I served my two terms as per the constitution and I can’t be a leader again more so, I’m not even seeking leadership in the government too,” emotional Besigye highlighted.
“I’m only seeking freedom for our country so that we can have an equal voice in this country, so what interest do I have in destabilizing the party?” he added.
Besigye made these remarks while addressing Journalists in Kampala in his response to the FDC’s elder committee report.
Party chairman Amb. Birigwa called upon all members to forgive each other and work towards the progress of the party, but since then his appeal has only fallen on deaf ears.
