KAMPALA, UGANDA: The Justice Forum Party-JEEMA has pulled out of the 3rd Inter-Party Organization for Dialogue-IPOD Summit.
The summit will be held on today (Friday) at Kololo Independence grounds where National Resistance Movement (NRM) Leader Yoweri Museveni is expected to lead the discussion.
In a letter addressed to the Executive Secretary of IPOD, the party’s President Asuman said that they didn’t have adequate time to discuss the agenda of the summit.
“There is limited time by the respective party organs to exhaustively consider and take a position on the agenda item and the obstinacy of the ruling party to implement the resolution of previous Summit meeting,” Basaalirwa wrote.
On Monday, the Secretary-General of the National Resistance Movement-NRM Justine Kasule Lumumba while at a press conference at Kabira Country club announced the IPOD Summit that will be conducted under the theme ” Dialogue for National Cohesion”.
At the event, JEEMA was represented by their Secretary General Muhammad Kateregga who had earlier on said the party would participate in the summit which will be chaired by the NRM Chairman, President Yoweri Museveni.
On Tuesday, JEEMA spokesperson Abdunood Kyamundu and the party Deputy Secretary-General Fredrick Kasajja said that the party was undecided about attending the meeting.
Kyamundu said they were hesitant to participate in a summit when there are human rights violations like kidnaps happening in the country. He added that they need to know why some resolutions made at previous summits have not been implemented. One of the resolutions is regarding the Public Order Management Act -POMA. IPOD passed regulations to guide the implementation of the Act but they have never been tabled before parliament.
Kyamundu also accused the NRM of frustrating JEEMA’s efforts to organize a summit during their tenure.
The Executive Secretary of IPOD, Frank Rusa said that the summit will go ahead despite JEEMA’s boycott.
On Tuesday, Ibrahim Semujju Nganda, the FDC party Spokesperson said that they will not attend because they cannot be seen to sit with a person jailing and torturing Ugandans.
FDC wants the President to set free Ugandans jailed innocently and stop horrendous acts against the citizenry.
IPOD is an organ that brings together parties with representation in Parliament to dialogue on issues affecting the country and political players in the country.
Current members are the National Resistance Movement-NRM, Democratic Party-DP, Forum for Democratic Change-FDC, Justice Forum-JEEMA and Uganda People’s Congress-UPC.
Do you have a story or an opinion to share? Email us on: [email protected] Or join the Daily Express WhatsApp channel for all the latest news and trends or join the Telegram Channel for the latest updates.
