Grand Pacific Hotel in Lira Town has been surrounded by armed security men barring People Power coordinators from accessing the venue.
The cordon comes after Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine insisted he would have his consultative meeting at the venue despite several warnings from Police that he hadn’t met the required standards.
Bobi Wine’s agents and supporters who turned up on Wednesday morning at the venue have been chased away by security.
The police deployed overnight to stop the consultative exercise.
This website understands that by the time of filing this report Bobi Wine was still enroute Lira.
Police claims that Kyagulanyi and his team did not obtain written permission from the management of the Hotel (venue) allowing them to use the facility for the consultations — even though the venue was fully paid for.
Earlier on Tuesday Lira District RDC Milton Odong announced that the meeting had been cancelled by security over alleged failure to meet guidelines on public meetings.
Odongo said that although police had initially granted permission to Bobi Wine’s People Power to hold the meeting, it wouldn’t be allowed after the organisers failed to secure written consent from the proprietor of Pacific Grand hotel where the meeting was scheduled to take place.
“The proprietor of the hotel, Pacific hotel did not write a consent letter accepting to host Bobi Wine as stipulated in the IGP’s letter, Section F which says a clear programme and proof of consent for the use of the intended venue. The legal proprietor must be given three days before the intended consultative meeting. So that is the reason for calling off that meeting.” said Odongo.