Politics

Court dismisses case of inciting violence against MP Ssekikubo

Masaka Chief Magistrate Court has dismissed a case in which Lwemiyaga County MP, Mr Theodore Ssekikubo had been accused of inciting violence.

The outspoken ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) legislator had been accused of committing the offence in January last year.
However, Mr Charles Yeteise, the Masaka chief magistrate dismissed the case Wednesday after prosecution failed to adduce enough evidence against the MP who had been accused of leading herdsmen on January 3, 2020 to take cattle to
Lwemiyaga Market which had been reportedly closed following the
outbreak of foot- and -mouth disease in the area.

The State had also accused the MP of mobilizing cattle traders in his constituent to attack businesses of milk traders who were operating freely.

Mr Ssekikubo’s supporters  reportedly did this in retaliation to police’s crackdown on livestock farmers who had made several attempts  to take their cattle to  Lwemiyaga cattle market for sale, but were  blocked by police due to an outbreak of Foot-and -Mouth Disease(FMD)  yet the milk sellers were freely doing  business.

The defense lawyer led by Mr Alexander Lule, asked court also to drop another case of 2010 where Mr Ssekikubo was also accused of inciting violence during the National Resistance Movement (NRM) primaries because the state had failed to prosecute the case.

The dismissal of the case in which Ssekikubo is also said to have
poured down milk and destroyed other dairy products of herdsmen on 3 January 2020, at Lwemiyaga market, followed the state prosecutor’s submission that some of the witnesses in the case had snubbed court summonses.