Embattled Leader of Opposition (LoP) Joel Ssenyonyi has spoken out on calls for resignation after activists accused him of telling lies in regard to per diem money meant for visiting ailing National Unity Platform (NUP) MP Muhammad Ssegirinya in hospital in Kenya Nairobi.
Joel Ssenyonyi resignation calls gained began last week after the NUP spokesperson and Nakawa West MP addressed a press conference and said he had returned the money.
Activists later produced documents indicating that Joel Ssenyonyi had requested for money for five days and that the money was sent to his accounts. But the opposition politician returned a day later and was seen at events in Kampala. (See Details Here and There and Over There).
Despite the Joel Ssenyonyi resignation calls, the NUP leadership is trying to ignore the demands for the LoP’s exit.
Ssenyonyi himself has in recent times chosen silence, coming out only last week to address the allegations of false accounting, abuse of office and corruption that had been trending on social media during the Uganda Parliament Exhibition.
As NUP President Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine keeps mute on the Joel Ssenyonyi resignation calls and as others like Party Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya parrot Ssenyonyi’s statement ignoring the activists’ argument that he lied, the LoP has responded in a media interview.
Ssenyonyi said his actions were not as bad as those of his predecessor Mathias Mpuuga, the immediate former LoP and embattled NUP Commissioner of Parliament. It was against this that he trashed his resignation calls.
“You are relating this to Mr Mpuuga’s situation. First, he didn’t act before the quizzing happened and also, he was awarded this money wrongly. Mine is not criminal because I am supposed to get reimbursement and it’s provided for within the law,” Ssenyonyi told Daily Monitor’s Derrick Wandera at the weekend.
“So it’s not on my end to release the money and I did not sit in a meeting to say ‘let’s award this money to ourselves.’ All we Re seeking is following the law to letter, and people will manipulate everything to see us in the wrong side of the law. That will not deter us from seeking for accountability from the people misusing taxpayers’ money.”
NUP is in a crisis, with Mpuuga refusing to resign for a Shs500m cash award and Ssenyonyi’s name in the spotlight over the Ssegirinya visit money. (See Details Here and There).
