Uganda’s main opposition presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, has reported that he and his campaign team members were arrested in the country’s region of Kalangala on Wednesday, December 30.
Tweeting about his recent arrest, Bobi Wine who has had several brushes with the police before now, said the police also fired tear gas at his team which spurred protests at a field in the Kalangala Island in Lake Victoria where a helicopter was parked.
Wine’s supporters said they believed the helicopter was brought by the police to take him back to Kampala, the country’s capital.
Also confirming the arrest of the popular musician and politician, Joel Senyonyi, the spokesman for Wine’s National Unity Platform party, said the police arrested him alongside his entire campaign team.
“Yes, the police has arrested him together with his whole campaign team. They (police) put them in police trucks and started driving but we don’t know where they are taking them,” Senyonyi said.
Wine has carved a solid opposition image for himself and has emerged as the strongest challenger to 76-year-old President Yoweri Museveni who has been in power for over 30 years, in the presidential election that will hold on January 14, 2021.
However, the police, in a statement, dismissed reports of the arrests, and said they had CCTV footage of Wine’s supporters deflating tyres of police vehicles, inciting violence and obstructing officers on duty.
“The candidate was restrained for continuously holding massive rallies amidst the increased threats of coronavirus, in total disregard of the Electoral Commission and Ministry of Health guidelines. He’s been transferred to his home in Magere, Kampala,” the police said on their Facebook page.
