National Unity Platform former Presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine has threatened Chief Justice Owiny Dollo with defiance should he refuse to step down from hearing his petition.
Kyagulanyi, who was the first runners up in the January 14 presidential elections petitioned the Supreme Court seeking the nullification of the election which was won by President Yoweri Museveni.
He however says he no longer feels the Owiny Dollo led court has what it takes to deliver justice to Ugandans who he says overwhelmingly voted for change but whose victory was robbed in favor of Museveni.
As such, he has demanded that the chief justice, along with two other justices on the nine justice panel step down for he says it’s been established that the three have in the past had personal and professional relationships with President Museveni, a defendant in the matter before the very court which makes the prospect of justice highly unlikely.
“We went to court seeking justice. As demonstrated above, all we have received so far is injustice and unfairness. It is however not surprising that Mr. Owiny-Dollo is behaving in this manner, although we hoped he would conduct the affairs of our highest court judiciously, ” Bobi Wine wrote.
He decried Museveni’s destruction of institutions and wondered how courts meant to provide justice for the people has instead turned out to serve an individual – Museveni.
“Ordinarily, a Supreme Court is the oppressed people’s last place of refuge. But whatever Museveni has done to the institutions of this country, only God knows. Courts are enjoined by Article 126(1) of the Constitution to exercise judicial power in the name of the people, and not in the name of Museveni!” He exclaims.
Kyagulanyi takes through history where he narrated the Chief justice’s long past indirect service and closeness to the 0resident as the reasons he shouldn’t be the right person to superintendent over his case. He says that Owiny Dollo is not a former minister in Museveni’s government but he also represented the defendant in the 2001 petition filed by Dr. Besigye!
As for Justice Mike Chibita,another on the panel hearing the case, Bobi Wine elaborates that his former position as Museveni’s private secretary for 7 years makes him unfit to take part in the hearing. He further punches holes in his tenure as Director of Public Prosecution which according to Bobi Wine had left a lot of questions over his integrity.
He thus says that since the law allows litigants with strong grounds to apply and request that justices who have clear conflict of interest in a case recuse themselves from hearing the matter, three of the nine justices should use it to step out of the matter.
The NUP leader has sent a strong warning to the justices on what will be his next step if they insist on hearing the case.
“We have made it clear that if the said justices refuse to step out of our case and the court continues to deny us the opportunity to file evidence, we shall be left with no option but to withdraw that Petition and take it back to the Court of the People, ” he warned.
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