LIRA. The Police have explained that their operatives raided a hotel in Lira City on Tuesday where National Unity Platform(NUP) presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine and his entourage spent the night , due to “unbearable provocations and aggression” by his supporters.
In a statement issued late Tuesday, the Uganda Police Force said the raid at Tembo Trek Courts was part of an ongoing crackdown on rising violence during the presidential campaigns.
Police said the operation targeted a suspect linked to an earlier attack on a police surveillance vehicle along the Lira–Alebtong highway.
“Certain individuals have developed a troubling habit of provoking police with increasing levels of aggression that have now become intolerable,” the police statement read. “These negative elements have escalated their actions to damaging vehicles, assaulting officers, and causing chaotic scenes.”The force accused a group of National Unity Platform (NUP) supporters of ambushing a police vehicle that was trailing Bobi Wine’s convoy on Tuesday afternoon, puncturing its tyres, and stealing a laptop, fuel, and personal belongings. Police said ten suspects were arrested and a green Toyota drone impounded.
“We shall go for conflict entrepreneurs who have chosen to confront police officers at leisure and turned aggression, belligerence, and violence into a habit,” the statement said.
The incident comes amid increasing tension between security forces and the opposition candidate’s campaign trail in northern Uganda, where police say they are responding to “lawlessness and targeted provocation.”
Bobi Wine, however, condemned the Lira hotel invasion, describing it as “a barbaric act” aimed at intimidating his team.
In a Wednesday morning statement before leaving for Kotido and Abim, the NUP leader said the raid was part of a long-standing pattern of election-time repression.
“Before hitting the road to Kotido and Abim districts, I briefed the media about the tragic events that ensued last night at my Lira hotel residence,” Kyagulanyi said.
“The invasion was a barbaric act and replicates the usual script of sowing seeds of fear within us. This has been the criminal regime pattern at every election cycle. They intend to isolate me and take away my security team.”
He added that Geoffrey Unzima, one of his campaign members, had been “targeted even before leaving Kampala,” and that police later told him the raid was to recover gadgets allegedly stolen by the team.
“They allege that our comrade Tower stole a laptop and a network jammer from them,” Kyagulanyi said.
“We are yet to establish if this is true, but as far as we know, we are law-abiding citizens. This is absolute impunity.”
Kyagulanyi revealed that seven out 15 of his supporters who were arrested Tuesday night had been released.
Police said investigations into malicious damage and robbery were continuing, adding that the operation was not directed at the opposition candidate personally, but at specific suspects linked to criminal activity.