Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine has officially written his application to the court to withdraw a petition challenging President Museveni’s victory in the Jan.14 elections.
The National Unity Platform party leader, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine has officially written his application to withdraw a petition challenging President Museveni’s victory in the just-concluded presidential elections.
Kyagulanyi in his application noted with concern that he was forced to withdraw his petition because the court was sectored and biased from the first day of hearing out his case.
In particular, Bobi Wine disclosed that his witnesses have been abducted, tortured and others intimidated from presenting evidence before the court.
“The petitioner’s witnesses are being abducted, tortured, harassed and intimidated by state security operatives at the behest of the first(Museveni) and third respondent(Attorney General)’s agents. Organs of the state like Uganda Police Force and NIRA are being used by the respondents to investigate and infringe on privacy of the petitioner’s witnesses,” part of Kyagulanyi’s application reads.
“The petitioner lost time during the illegal house detention but this honourable court is more inclined towards the strict timelines which has disadvantaged the petitioner to the advantage of the respondents.”
Also, he said that after discussions with his close parties, he established that withdrawing his petition was the right thing to do.
“After deeply reflecting upon the foregoing circumstances, I reached a decision that withdrawing the instant petition is the right thing to do since this court is not handling the petition with the independence, impartiality and equality I expected of it,” Kyagulanyi adds further.
Meanwhile, this comes at a time when supporters of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party have issued warnings to Kyagulanyi that any petition withdraw will require him to pay costs to compensate their time wasted in attending court sittings.
Justice Lumumba, the NRM party’s general secretary earlier this week demanded that Kyagulanyi has to meet the consequences that come with withdrawing a court case.
“While it’s within Mr. Kyagulanyi’s rights to withdraw his case from the Supreme Court, it’s important to note that there are procedures and consequences for withdrawing a case from court,” Lumumba said.
“An application to withdraw the election petition shall have to be made in writing and If the application is granted. the petitioner shall be ordered to pay the costs of the respondents thereto for incurred or such portion thereof as the court may think fit. The court shall direct that the notice of withdrawal shall be published in the office of the court,” she added.
