What really happened in Uganda – Presidency

Posted by admin Africa & World Politics, Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Presidency Sunday, May 15th, 2011

THE Presidency has explained the incident in Uganda, last week, when the convoy of President Goodluck Jonathan who had attended the inauguration for another term, in office, of President Yoweri Museveni was reportedly pelted with stones.

While maintaining its earlier position that Jonathan was not stoned, the Presidency, however, conceded that the incident took place but was directed at local VIP protection jeep whose occupants who might have been involved in the harassment of Museveni’s opponents who were engaged in a peaceful protest.

Speaking to State House correspondents in Abuja on Saturday, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ima Niboro, who expressed Jonathan’s regret over the reported loss of a life during the incident, stoutly denied that the President was the target.

He said the President was hardly aware of the stoning incident because it took place behind the car that was conveying him, adding that Jonathan was well received by the people of Uganda in Kampala during the visit for the inaugurationn of Museveni who has been in power since 1986.

According to the presidential spokesman, “What actually happened is that after the event, the President was on his way to the airport when he was requested to return to his hotel, that there was an ongoing protest on his route to the airport. So he decided to return.

“On the way to the hotel, the convoy passed through an area identified as a stronghold of the opposition. But the crowd was quite courteous and some even waved at us.

“However, a particular Ugandan VIP protection jeep seemed to enter a panic mode, given the neighborhood, and began to swerve frantically from side to side, and in the process forcing passersby into a ditch.

“Those affected pelted the jeep with stones. It was a brief incident, lasting not more than a few seconds,” Niboro explained.

He added that it was therefore shocking to read in the newspapers the following day that the President’s car was attacked and that somebody had been killed.

-Tribunewp_posts