In the wee hours of Monday morning, groups of Masaka youth took to the streets and systematically plucked candidate Amama Mbabazi’s posters off electricity poles and buildings. Patrol police officers could also be seen monitoring the streets.
Go Forward coordinator in Masaka Municipality, Mathias Mpuuga, believes it was a planned inside job and the police were simply on the streets to protect the destructive youth. “We are aware that the deputy RDC Joseph Ssekasamba and some armed police officers were escorting people that were removing the posters,” he said.
Mpuguga claims Go Forward had put up over 20,000 posters in town and its outskirts.
Southern regional police spokesperson Nuwa Sserunjogi says Police are not aware that its armed officers “were escorting the people that removed posters of presidential aspirant John Patrick Amama Mbabazi” as claimed by his supporters. He promises a thorough investigation into the claims.
That aside, Masaka is yet to be excitable about the coming of Amama. The town is quiet and folks are normally going on with their daily work.
A chat with a couple of business people and Boda Boda riders in town reveals that although some could be supporting Amama, they are fearing to expressly come out too early for fear of being targeted by those who are opposed to him.
