The FDC National Executive Council has suspended Patrick Oboi Amuriat and Secretary General Nandala Mafabi from the party and appointed Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago as the interim party president.
In the extraordinary National Delegates Conference that took place at Katonga offices on Tuesday, 19 September 2023, despite objection by police and heavy deployment, the members also resolved to extend the leadership of the FDC party organs by another six months from October 8, 2023.
The meeting was attended FDC National Chairman Wasswa Birigwa, Dr Kizza Besigye and other top FDC leaders.
In the seven resolutions read by party spokesman Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, the party also resolved to put in place an interim electoral commission to hold party elections.
They resolved that Mafabi, Amuriat as well as Treasurer General Geoffrey Ekanya be suspended and investigated over their dealings. FDC deputy chairperson Lukwago, deputy treasurer Francis Mwijukye and Harold Kaija, the deputy secretary general, will assume the roles of the suspended officials.
Delegates also set aside elections organised by Toterebuka Bamwenda.
The Delegates Conference took place at Katonga Road amid heavy police deployment. Several other delegates were blocked from reaching the venue.
This was after Police cut off Nature’s Green Beach Resort, Busabala, where the FDC delegates’ conference called by Birigwa was meant to take place.
This comes a day after court halted the FDC Extra Ordinary Delegates conference.
Earlier, FDC spokesperson Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda wondered why police was interfering in internal party matters.
“We wrote to them to provide security at our conference and they said they were unable. So we also told them that we don’t need their security. So I wonder what they want,” he told journalists, insisting that the conference will go on.
Mwijukye, the FDC Deputy Treasurer, also said the party’s Extraordinary Delegates Conference would proceed, despite a court injunction.
Mwijukye claimed that the halt to the conference had been premeditated, alleging that the party’s Secretary General, Nathan Nandala Mafabi, and President Patrick Amuriat had actively sought to obstruct the event from the beginning.
The FDC Deputy Treasurer further asserted that the party leadership had found no legal avenue to stop the conference except through obtaining a court injunction.
“The three persons who petitioned the court are Nandala’s personal assistants, and they sued the Secretary General Nandala and President Amuriat. The same individuals who are against the delegates conference, it was clear collusion,” Mwijukye claimed.
Mwijukye also alleged a potential conflict of interest, stating that Justice Esther Nambayo, who handled a record nine cases concerning the FDC, including the injunction against the Extraordinary Delegates Conference, is Nandala’s niece.
Speaking in a television interview on Monday, September 18, Birigwa wondered why Nandala Mafabi and Patrick Amuriat are rushing to block the delegates’ conference he called. Amuriat and Mafabi have disassociated themselves from the conference, saying it was not planned or budgeted for by the party.
