Less than 24 hours after the family of Mr Abed Nasser Mudiobole, a lawyer and member of the Opposition National Unity Platform (NUP), asked the High Court in Kampala to order his immediate and unconditional release, he has been arraigned in court and charged “unlawful drilling”.
According to records before Iganga Chief Magistrates ,where he appeared Tuesday ,Mudiobole participated in the army-like parade which was mounted at the NUP headquarters at Makerere- Kavule ,a Kampala City suburb on February 12.
Videos and photos which circulated on social media platforms in early February showed NUP President Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu inspecting a parade of men dressed in red overalls and red berets , who saluted him as he moved through their ranks.
This display drew the attention of the national army -UPDF, which expressed concern over what it views as an imitation of military conduct.
After learning about Mudiobole’s arraignment in court NUP Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya posted on X (Twitter) “Six days after he was abducted and held incommunicado, our comrade, advocate Mudiobole Abed Nasser, has been brought to Iganga Magistrate’s Court, where he is being charged with “unlawful drilling” for apparently participating in a People Power parade! And yet the NRM MPs are passing other bogus laws,”.
Mudiobole ,who was previously a member of Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) is vying for Iganga Municipality parliamentary seat .
Mudiobole’s wife, Ms Berna Mutamba, and the Vice President of the Uganda Law Society (ULS), Mr Anthony Asiimwe, on Tuesday the accused was arrested at Gold Rock Hotel in Kyaliwajjala, and that his whereabouts have been unknown since then.
In her affidavit to support the application, Mr Mudiobole’s wife said on May 16, at around 5pm, while she was at City Oil, Acacia Avenue, she received a call from her husband, requesting her to join him at Gold Rock Hotel Kyaliwajjala.
“That when I was approaching Naalya Roundabout along the Northern Bypass on my way to Gold Rock Hotel Kyaliwajjala, I received a call from an anonymous telephone number, which caller introduced herself as Patricia and informed me that Counsel Mudiobole had been arrested/abducted from Gold Rock Hotel Kyaliwajjala and that his car, a Subaru Outback, had also been taken,” she stated.
She added: “I inquired from the said Patricia how she had gotten to know of the abduction and she informed me that she had received a call from an anonymous person who introduced himself to her as a client with a land issue and was desirous of giving her instructions.
Patricia further informed me that upon meeting the disguised client, she was forced into a car in which there were several men dressed in civilian clothes in possession of guns who instructed her to call Abdul Nasser Mudiobole and lead them there.”
Ms Mutamba said since Friday, she has gone to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) in Kireka, Kira Division Police Headquarters in Kira Municipality, Jinja Road Police Station, and Wandegeya Police Station, but she has not been able to find her husband.
This led her to report a Missing Person case at the Kira Division Police Headquarters. “That my husband is diabetic and is meant to take medicine every day at 10pm, something he has not done ever since he was held incommunicado by unknown persons. That I keep on moving with his medicine from one police station/unit to another hoping to find him but in vain.
The continued detention of my husband, in an unknown place, without accessing his lawyers and doctors beyond 48 hours is unlawful and violates his right to liberty and fair hearing as guaranteed under the Constitution,” she states.
She said on April 17, Mr Mudiobole was summoned by Iganga Police Station to make a statement about a case of ‘unlawful drilling’. This followed a video that was circulating on social media showing him inspecting NUP’s so-called ‘foot soldiers’.
“On the day he was called to make a statement, we went together; [we were] taken to the office of the Regional Police Commander (RPC), [and] instructions were given that he should not make a statement; we were instead told that they would call him when they would need him,” Ms Mutamba recounts.