The chairperson of the NRM electoral commission, Dr. Tanga Odoi, has warned party leaders against making contradictory statements.
Odoi made the remarks while addressing journalists in Kampala yesterday about the roadmap for the forthcoming National Resistance Movement (NRM) primaries in Nebbi district. His comments were in reference to the statement issued recently by the NRM secretary general, Justine Kasule Lumumba, disowning the ongoing recruitment of cadres in the party.
According to Kasule Lumumba, there was no directive from any organ of the party that had been identified to recruit cadres.
“As the custodian of the minutes of the organs of NRM, inclusive of the CEC meetings, I can state with no fear of contradiction that the above recruitment drive is certainly not part of the seven-point Chobe resolutions,” she said.
CEC decision, However, yesterday, Odoi refuted Lumumba’s statement, saying the recruitment was agreed on during the Chobe retreat for CEC members.
“Whoever did not understand the simple English used, should make the contradiction. As for me I was at Chobe and I heard it being said,” Odoi said.
He said the cadres were recruited to help in strengthening the delivery of Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) at the grassroot level.
“People at the grassroot level were not properly benefiting from OWC services under the sub-county model. That is why we resolved to take up the parish model that reaches out to more people,” he said “As a result, we resolved to recruit 200,000 cadres.
This move is not meant to benefit only NRM supporters, it is for every Ugandan,” Odoi said. Odoi said these contradictions do not need to come from the party secretariat because the office of the party chairman makes the final decision.
“The national chairman’s office wrote to Lumumba informing her of everything, but I cannot believe she says she knows nothing about what was going on,” he added Odoi said the party secretariat has a lot of work at their disposal and should stop criticizing the party.
“I am a member of CEC and I know the President is on the right course by recruiting those cadres,” he added. Efforts to get a comment from Kasule Lumumba or the NRM communications officer Rogers Mulindwa by press time yesterday were futile.