The former chairperson of Uganda opposition political party Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) John Butiime has indicated that he wasn’t bribed to join the Uganda ruling National Resistance Movement Party (NRM).

John Butime at the meeting

While speaking at the human rights training organized by the Fort Portal based human rights NGO called Twerwaneho Listeners Club on Monday July 15, 2010, Butime said it is his fundamental right to join any political organization in the country which puts the interests of the people at the forefront.

Butime who crossed from FDC to NRM early this year (2010) after meeting the NRM secretary general Amama Mbabazi in Fort Portal become the chairperson of Uganda powerful opposition party FDC headed by Dr. Kiiza Besigye after the death of it’s the then chairperson and former governor of Bank of Uganda Dr. Suleiman Kigundu (RIP).

The former FDC chairperson rubbished stories in the Uganda tabloid Red Pepper which say that he was bribed with 100million shilling to join the ruling NRM party. He says that he is planning to take the newspaper to courts of laws because it has destroyed his reputation.

Butime who joined Uganda politics in the 1960’s after winning the Makerere University guild presidency says that if he wanted financial benefits from politics, he would have not joined opposition in the Amini and Obote II governments.

Butime who is also the elder brother of the former Karamoja state minister Tom Butiime appealed to the people of Tooro to avoid voting people who want to achieve their own individual political interests in the coming 2011 Uganda general elections if they want the region to get out of poverty.

By Akugizibwe Solomon