FDC spokesperson Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda has given Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng two response options over the Lira rally incident: resignation or withdrawal of Covid19 guidelines.
Ssemujju, arrested over a political meeting on the day Aceng held a process in Lira, said the minister’s actions humiliated government.
“What she did is not only an embarrassment not only to herself but to the entire government,” Ssemujju said in a July 12 media interview.
He vowed to push Dr Aceng “to do the decent thing.”
“If she made a mistake, the first thing is to resign,” the opposition chief whip said.
Also Kira Municipality MP, Ssemujju argued that “if we were in a different world, say Europe, this minister would have resigned immediately.”
“You lock arcades; you stop bodabodas from operating and you’re on the road in a procession, a minister for health, the one who has published the regulations and you are on TV every day.”
Aceng’s procession is likely to be part of cabinet discussions this week after the issue dominated headlines.
In a statement on July 12, ICT and National Guidance Minister Judith Nabakooba said Aceng’s action was regrettable.
Aceng didn’t apologize for her July 10 procession but claimed the crowd had become excited and uncontrollable.
The other option Ssemujju has given Aceng is to announce the end of enforcement restrictions on political rallies, arcades and bodabodas since she has flouted preventive guidelines herself.
“If it is not a mistake, then she should go and withdraw the regulations that she published and are in the gazette.”
Ssemujju, the deputy Prime Minister in opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye’s People’s Government, also believes the restrictions are no longer about Covid prevention.
“It is now politics. [The NRM is looking at]: ‘How do we curtail the opposition, take advantage of Covid and “we are the only ones campaigning;’ that’s what they are doing.”
Additional Reporting: Courtesy
