Erias Lukwago, the Vice President of the Forum for Democratic Change’s (FDC) Buganda Region, has been excluded by the High Court from the proceedings involving three party members who are requesting a declaration that the upcoming National Delegates Conference is illegal and in contravention of national laws.
Jamal Wante, Marlick Ssazi, and Arafat Ntale Mwanja are the three parties engaged in this lawsuit.
The extraordinary National Delegates Conference was originally slated for today, September 19, 2023, but Judge Lady Justice Esta Nambayo of the Civil Division called it off on Friday.
This suspension is in effect while the primary case contesting the conference is being resolved.
The petitioners filed a lawsuit and claimed that the appropriate offices were not involved in the planning or execution of the aforementioned special National Delegates Conference.
They contend that the hurried scheduling and planning of the conference were done in bad faith with the intent to humiliate the party and bring about irreparable loss.
As respondents in their lawsuit, the petitioners identified the FDC party, its president, Patrick Oboi Amuriat, and its secretary general, Nathan Nandala Mafabi. This challenge is in reaction to the statement made by the party’s chairman, Ambassador Wasswa Birigwa, on August 15, 2023.
The main matter, however, was brought up on Monday in the afternoon for an additional hearing, which was conducted in secret.
Lawyers led by Lukwago entered and claimed to speak on behalf of Birigwa, the party’s chairperson, but were not parties to the application.
The judge dismissed them from the proceedings as a result of this. In his instructions, attorney Julius Galisonga stated that he was defending every respondent in the case.
However, this action infuriated Lukwago and the party’s Chief Whip, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, as they had drafted Birigwa’s court submissions.
The conference called by Birigwa for the next day is exempt from the order to halt the Extraordinary Delegates Conference because he is not a party to the proceedings and cannot be condemned unheard, according to explanations given by Lukwago and Nganda to journalists outside the court.
At Nature’s Green Beach in Busabala, they have promised to go to the conference and have urged other delegates to do the same.
All parties are required to submit written arguments beginning in September and continuing through October 4, 2023, when they will be reviewed by Justice Nambayo. Amuriat, the party’s president, and Mafabi have disassociated themselves from the conference, claiming that neither the party nor its budget were responsible for its planning or funding.
The convention is being stopped at a time when the party is split into two sections.
Amuriat and Nandala Mafabi are in charge of one faction, while Kizza Besigye, the former president of the FDC, Erias Lukwago, and Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, the MP for Kira Municipality, are in charge of the other.
When Birigwa, who is thought to have sided with Besigye’s group, accused the Mafabi-Amuriat group of receiving what they refer to as “dirty state money,” trouble and misunderstanding inside the party erupted.
Since the party’s alleged use of ‘dirty money’ in the 2021 elections, factions have been fighting for control of the organization, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary in December 2024.
Birigwa announced last week that the meeting would go as scheduled.
However, the police have said they won’t provide security for it and have suggested FDC seek a court ruling in order to prevent any conflicts.