Makerere University lecturer, Prof. Mwambutsya Ndebesa has advised National Unity Platform (NUP) principal Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine to “give up” up his armoured car to the government as another way of freeing himself from witch-hunt.
Ndebesa made the remarks today, following Uganda Revenue Authority’s (URA) directive that Bobi Wine pays over 300 million Uganda shillings to secure his controversial car.
“If I were Kyagulanyi I would simply make a pronouncement at a press conference that I have “donated” my new controversial new car to government,” Ndebesa said adding that otherwise, the whole saga about URA re-evaluation of the car’s tax is nothing but political witch-hunt.
He queried; “If NRM government was serious about following up on tax justice why didn’t it follow up on taxes that Danze the NRM business company had evaded and recovered the money in public interest?”
Bobi Wine termed the while process “another shameful move” by government to frustrate him.
“URA wants me to pay for the vehicle which came into the country legally and was cleared by all relevant agencies,” Bobi Wine ranted before further arguing that;
“The vehicle was taken to the Directorate of Interpol in Kololo and they cleared it. It was then taken to the forensics department of Police in Naguru, and they too cleared it. Then we took it to URA and they did their own independent verification and levied the relevant tax which we paid.”
Bobi Wine states that the whole clearance process was entirely smooth for one reason that his name hadn’t come into the picture, citing that for several months no authority did raise any concern about the same car. He insinuated that indeed, if the car belonged to any other citizen, there wouldn’t be any issue.
“It was only when we transferred the car into my name that they began looking for fault and did not find any. At first they claimed that armoured vehicles require clearance by the Ministry of Defence. But there was no law to back their outrageous claim,” Bobi Wine said.
“That is how they said it was undervalued. We understand they quickly moved and sacked, demoted or persecuted all URA, Interpol and Police staff who did their job and cleared this vehicle. For no reason whatsoever, they punished them for not knowing that the car would end up in Bobi Wine’s name! Others were summoned by CMI for interrogation,” he added.
Bobi Wine blamed the “irregularity” on the incumbent government presided over by Yoweri Museveni. The opposition leader strongly believes he is being witch-hunted by the state.
He said; “All public institutions are personalized by Gen. Museveni who does with them whatsoever he pleases. As I have consistently said, when you take on Museveni, you have taken on all government institutions and they will gang up against you. The God who defends the weak against the strong is on our side. In the end, we shall look back to these trials and tribulations and make a pledge never to repeat the same mistakes.”
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