Semujju Nganda dismisses reports of Negotiations between Besigye and Salim Saleh

[Eronda]

​

The People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) Secretary General Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda has dismissed reports of negotiations between Dr Kizza Besigye and Gen Salim Saleh, saying the party has received no approach of any kind, formal or informal, on the jailed opposition leader’s situation.

“I am the Secretary General of PFF. Nobody has written to PFF as an institution proposing talk about doctor Kizza Besigye’s situation or any other matter, and nobody has even unofficially contacted the party,” Ssemujju said.

His denial is the strongest yet from within PFF’s top leadership against media reports.

​

Ssemujju questioned why the story was running almost exclusively in government owned outlets, suggesting the narrative was being manufactured rather than reported from a real process.

“I also read these things these days in the New Vision and Bukedde. They almost have a story every day. There is no any other media where I have seen a Gen Saleh proposes a committee,” he said.

​

He went on to offer his own explanation for why the idea of talks has surfaced now.

He said that it is rooted in the state of the treason case against Besigye, which he said has been badly weakened by the testimony of a prosecution witness. “I have a feeling because Museveni was made to believe that he had evidence against Besigye until that white man, that Mufere they brought to court collapse,” he said.

Ssemujju pointed to the circumstances of Besigye’s arrest in Nairobi as the heart of the problem for the prosecution. “If you look at the indictment, Museveni and his son claim that they arrested Besigye in Nairobi with two pistols and eight rounds of ammunition. Now this man goes to court and he says, no, no, no, no. This thing was stage managed by intelligence,” he said.

He then widened the charge to the security establishment, naming a string of senior intelligence officers he claimed are now answerable over falsified intelligence, and tying the alleged fabrication to the money available to the military.

“This thing was stage managed by intelligence, and now you have a whole chain of people who have been in intelligence from [Gen James] Birungi to [Gen Abel] Kandiho to Byaruhanga, and so on and so forth. They are on trial for falsifying intelligence because the budget of UPDF is about 5 trillion. They nearly have about 2 trillion in classified expenditure. That’s a very big industry. So those fellows are swimming in money. So they must keep creating stories,” he said.

“Unfortunately, because Museveni doesn’t like Besigye, either he believed or even participated in asking them to do those stories. So, their case in court has collapsed. As a result of collapse, they are now looking for a way out, and now they are pretending that there are talks. Maybe they are talking amongst themselves,” Ssemujju said.

Ssemujju’s position matches that of other party and family voices. PFF spokesperson Harold Kaija earlier called the purported talks “completely false.”

Besigye remains on trial for treason, alongside Hajj Obeid Lutale and Capt Denis Oola.
Chimp reports