KAMPALA. The National Executive Council of Opposition Forum For Democratic Change – FDC has suspended their president 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.
They resolved that Mafabi, Amuriat and Treasurer General Geoffrey Ekanya be suspended and investigated over their unpalatable 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 the 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 the court halted the FDC Extra Ordinary Delegates conference.
“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 of 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 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 a 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 to the media on Monday, September 18, Birigwa wondered why Nandala Mafabi and Patrick Amuriat were 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.