KAMPALA.
Outspoken Buyaga West Constituency legislator Barnabas Tinkasiimire has gone missing, causing anxiety among family members and friends .
According to his lawyers , Hon. Tinkasiimire was picked up from Rubis filling Station – Makerere at around 5:00pm on Sunday , by over 10 armed men travelling in a Toyota Hiace commonly known as “drone”, in an extremely violent manner.
After getting wind of news about Tinkasiimire’s disappearance ,National Unity Platform (NUP) Principal Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine posted on his X(Twitter ) said the legislator’s woes could be linked to his critical views on state of affairs in the country despite subscribing to the ruling National Resistance Movement .
“We have learnt of the violent abduction yesterday of Hon. Barnabas Tinkasiimire, Member of Parliament for Buyaga West Constituency. Although he is a member of NRM and has many times been unjustifiably critical of our struggle for a better country, Hon. Tinkasiimire has often been vocal about misrule and bad governance. Lately, he has been very critical of Museveni’s effort to impose his brutal son on our country, which his family believes is the reason he is being persecuted and held incommunicado,” he said
Mr Kyagulanyi said both Tinkasiimire’s family members and lawyers fear that he could be subjected to torture, like many others who are abducted in a similar manner .
“ His[Tinkasiimire] family has tried to look for him without success. We join other Ugandans of good conscience in demanding for his immediate release from illegal detention.
Recently, we warned the greedy, selfish, thoughtless NRM MPs against passing that UPDF Amendment Bill.
We told them that as day follows night, many will fall victim to the same criminality they’re legislating into law. Hopefully, what is happening to Hon. Tinkasiimire will be a wake up call that in a sinking boat, NO ONE CAN BE SAFE.” He added
Security agencies including Police and Army were yet to release a statement to the effect .