Williams Babalola
Ugandan opposition leader, Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, has announced that he will withdraw the court case challenging the last presidential election over lack of confidence for the court.
The singer-turned-politician contested against longtime incumbent President Yoweri Museveni in the January election.
Speaking at a news conference in the capital Kampala on Monday, Bobi Wine said that he had decided to withdraw his case, claiming that “the courts are not independent, it is clear these people (judges) are working for Mr Museveni,”
The country’s electoral commission declared Mr Museveni won a sixth term with over 58 per cent of the vote, a result Bobi Wine disputed as fraudulent.
“We are withdrawing from the courts but we are not opting for violence. We are withdrawing the case from Mr Owiny Dollo’s court,” he said, as reported by Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper.
Bobi Wine has called on Judge Dollo and two other judges to rescue themselves from the case because of the relationship they’ve built with Mr Museveni over the years, but they ignored his calls.
Solomon Muyita, a judiciary spokesman, told Reuters news agency they will only respond to Bobi Wine’s accusations and his decision to withdraw the case when he formally withdraws it through his lawyers.
“Right now what he has done is, he has only made a political statement, as far as the records of the Supreme Court are (concerned) the case is still there,” he said
The ruling National Resistance Movement threatened to force Bobi Wine to pay legal expenses incurred during the short-lived court case, something his lawyer said he was willing to do.
Bobi Wine drew a lot of international attention for his unlikely bid to unseat Museveni in the January vote.
Human Rights Watch said the lead-up to the elections was characterised by widespread violence and human rights abuses but Museveni denied all allegations of rigging the election.
In the run-up to the election, the prominent performer was detained several times and stirred nationwide unrest that left scores dead in violence with law enforcement.
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