Kole North MP, Samuel Opio has wondered whether the leading opposition party, changed its name from National Unity Platform to Northern Uganda Persecutors.
Speaking to the media at Parliament today, Opio said the campaign by Leader of Opposition Joel Ssenyonyi to have NUP MPs boycott parliamentary sittings in Northern Uganda had cast the opposition party in bad light.
“It made me wonder whether the word LOP means Leader of Opposition or Leader of Persecution of the people of Northern Uganda. It made me wonder whether NUP means National Unity Platform or Northern Uganda Persecutors. This isn’t the first time this is happening, when the Late Jacob Oulanyah was in the US seeking treatment, the same people went and protested, but when their own including MPs are out there, they haven’t complained about it,” Opio said.
MPs from Acholi, Lango, and Karamoja said Ssenyonyi should support the move to hold Parliament sessions in their regions, despite the Shs 5 billion cost per session, which Ssenyonyi deems untenable.
Anthony Akol (Kilak North) described Ssenyonyi’s remarks of boycotting the sitting in Northern Uganda as unfortunate, claiming he received the Leader of Opposition’s statements with a lot of pain because unlike people in central and western Uganda who have TVs majority of people in Northern Uganda don’t.
However, Ssenyonyi asked the angry MPs to desist from tribalising the issue of regional parliament, saying that if indeed they were interested in fighting poverty in their region, they would back his plan.
“When you see the poverty in some of these areas and you tell people that this Shs 5 billion is just for a meeting, it doesn’t make sense at all. So, they shouldn’t start tribalizing this issue because it isn’t tribal at all, we are opposed to the regional sittings in the North, West, East and Central. We can have our sitting here and deliberate for Northern Uganda because Northern Uganda has got good representatives here, who can speak on behalf of their people. Are they saying that their matters will only be heard if Parliament sits in that particular area? Why do we have to spend an extra Shs5Bn to transport all MPs?” Ssenyonyi said.
Parliaments intends to hold a number of sessions in Acholi and Lango sub regions starting next week. In total, the session will cost Shs 20 billion.
