Ugandan opposition chief Bobi Wine mentioned he was “grabbed” by “thugs” and positioned below home arrest upon his return from overseas.
The singer-turned-politician is the strongest rival to President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in workplace for almost 40 years.
He has been arrested a number of instances and confronted a number of fees, together with treason.
Police denied arresting Bobi Wine, saying he was merely an “escort” residence.
The police mentioned in a press release: “They ignored rumors of his arrest by preachers.”
Bobi Wine, a former pop star whose actual title is Robert Kyagulanyi, made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2021 in tense elections in opposition to President Museveni (79 years outdated).
The election marketing campaign was marked by a crackdown on the opposition, and no less than 54 folks had been killed throughout anti-government demonstrations.
Bobi Wine arrived from South Africa on Thursday through the Rwandan capital, Kigali, after a collection of worldwide engagements.
His supporters meant to obtain him at Entebbe Worldwide Airport and accompany him residence in an enormous march, however police mentioned that was unlawful.
As soon as he arrived, even earlier than he handed by immigration, “some criminals grabbed me, dragged me, twisted my palms and put me in a ready non-public automotive,” Bobi Wine mentioned.
He later mentioned from his residence that he was below home arrest.
A video posted by the Nationwide Unity Platform (NUP) on X, previously Twitter, confirmed the chief being led away after getting off a aircraft in Entebbe. Within the video, one in every of his companions was heard saying, “The place are you taking him?”
Mathias Mbuga, chief of the Nationwide Unionist Occasion in Parliament, mentioned: “The cowardly regime arrested our president upon his arrival at Entebbe airport. We proceeded to obtain him at present, however the terrified regime’s safety couldn’t even permit him to enter immigration.”
Bobi Wine’s return has been eagerly anticipated by his supporters, lots of whom see him as a logo of change in a rustic dominated by one man for many years.
Final month, police introduced they’d ban NDP rallies throughout the nation attributable to public order points.
Ugandan troopers and different safety forces have been deployed on the roads resulting in Entebbe airport since early Thursday morning, in addition to outdoors the places of work of the Nationwide Unity Occasion, and in Kampala’s central enterprise district.
Police spokesman Patrick Onyango mentioned safety brokers accompanied Bobi Wine to his residence at Magere in Kasangati.
Ugandan authorities have a protracted historical past of utilizing so-called “preventive detention” to arrest opposition leaders, typically detaining them for a number of hours earlier than returning them to their properties to thwart mass demonstrations.