The NRM has continued to attack Dr Kizza Besigye, with NRM spokesperson Ofwono Opondo describing the opposition leader as a “traitor” who must be dealt with firmly.
The former presidential candidate, who lost his fourth bid for the highest political seat in the 2016 elections, returned from Europe on Monday.
Besigye, 60, was arrested as soon as Kenya Airways, on which he was aboard, landed at Entebbe International Airport.
He was led in a tightly-guarded police convoy to his residence in Kasangati, Wakiso District where he used a hastily-convened press conference to threaten a massive political revolution that will sweep president Museveni’s government from power.
These eyebrow-raising remarks have since unsettled the government with Opondo saying Besigye must pay for his actions.
“We have allowed Kizza Besigye to thrive but he is a traitor and we must deal with him politically,” said Opondo as he addressed a group of youthful NRM supporters at the National Leadership Institute in Kyankwanzi on Wednesday.
Besigye had earlier said he returned to Uganda illegally as he was arrested before his “passport was stamped” by immigration officials.
Opondo had no kind words for FDC strongman: “Besigye, in any case in 2001 you fled Uganda without having your passport stamped, what the big deal now?”
Opondo was referring to Besigye’s self-imposed exile that took him to Zambia and later South Africa from where he returned to contest in the 2006 presidential elections.
“And if Besigye is seriously aggrieved by immigration action, let him seek redress in courts of law,” added Opondo, a renowned critic of the opposition.
He said immigration “acted within law to contain public nuisance at Entebbe Airport.”
Opondo’s comments came high on the heels of Information and ICT Minister Frank Tumwebaze’s blistering attack, accusing Besigye of fomenting trouble to appease his foreign supporters.
“Besigye should know that his repetitive chorus of singing anti-NRM doom prophesies and his weird dream of thinking that he can be president through staging chaotic scenes aimed at catapulting his visibility, have all failed miserably for over a decade now,” said Tumwebaze.
“Ugandans aren’t that gullible not to discern his games of accounting to his funders,” he added.
As Uganda prepares for the annual October 9 Independence celebrations, Besigye has vowed to lead parallel political activities against government – actions police has threatened to crush.