Eddie Mutwe, Nubian Li, Dan magic denied bail

By Sania Babirye

The general Court Martial sitting in Makindye chaired by Lt Gen Andrew Gutti has declined to grant bail filed by the 36 NUP members arrested in Kalangala in December 2020 and charged with the illegal possession of four rounds of fire magazines and four bullets on grounds that if granted bail, the suspects might continue inciting the public to do violence.

The suspects include Bobiwine's head of private security Eddie Sebuwufu aka Eddie Mutwe, singing partner, Ali Bukeni aka Nubian Li and producer Dan Magic among others.

However, lawyers representing NUP say they will be appealing the said ruling in the high court because they are dissatisfied with the ruling calling it unconstitutional.

According to NUP, Lt.Gen. Andrew Gutti has erred since he was just speculating on his reasons because none of the suspects has ever been convicted of any criminal offences related to inciting violence.

They add that for the chair of the army court declining this grant their members bail out of fantasy and speculation is unconstitutional and are ready to challenge the said ruling.

Officials from National Unity platform including party secretary general Lewis Rubongoya, party spokes person Joel Senyonyi and vice president Northern Uganda Lina Zedriga had turned up to court stand surety for their members to see that they get temporary freedom .

Last week, the same week granted bail to 13 mainly women and three men who were sick and needed immediate medical attention.

On the 8th of January, These were charged with illegal possession of live ammunition( four magazine) in a court session in which their lawyers led by Medard Ssegona were no allowed to attend court.

He says that these are just prisoners of conscience and that as a party they will continue seeking for justice for their clients since they are innocent.

He further revealed more about the said charge in which state claims that a search was conducted at one of the suspects residence and failed to get anything but after failing to get anything, the security operatives ordered one of the suspects to search in one of the dustbin and when one of the suspect to check the dustbin the security operatives had pointed out to him, they found the said alleged magazine

The said members had been granted bail by the Masaka magistrate court but the army court later issued a production warrant for them on Sunday leading to their arraignment today.

Prosecution states that the accused persons and others still at large on January 3rd 2021 while at Makerere Kavule, Kigundu Zone, Kawempe Division were found in possession of four rounds of ammunition of an AK 47 gun, which. is the monopoly of the defense forces.