A woman who claims she is the Gulu registrar for the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has defected to the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.
Aywek Winnifred Oloya said on Wednesday that she had crossed over to the NRM during a campaign a rally in Wii-Kweyo Village in Bobi sub county Gulu district in which she campaigned for Catherine Lamwaka, the NRM candidate for the Gulu woman parliamentary seat.
Mrs Oloya said she had worked for the FDC since 2010, and that all was good in the party while the district Chairmanship of the FDC was still under Ojara Mapenduzi, the current Gulu LC5 Chairman. This, according to her, however changed after the election of Simon Toolit, a former MP for Omoro, and the FDC parliamentary candidate for the same constituency in the ongoing campaigns.
As tension built in the Gulu FDC branch, Mrs Oloya said she had no option but to leave the FDC for the NRM.
But Chagga Oyat, the Gulu Secretary General for the FDC said Mrs Oloya had been at loggerheads with party officials since she ‘‘conspired’’ to hide Aswa County MP, Reagan Okumu’s nomination forms.
Aswa county MP and FDC Vice President for northern Uganda is contesting to retain his seat as an independent after high court in Gulu ruled that he had not followed procedures needed for one to be the FDC party candidate. Subsequently, court declared Okumu’s rival, Christopher Acire the FDC candidate for Aswa County. Acire is the outgoing MP for Gulu municipality. He switched interest from Gulu municipality to Aswa.
Mr Oyat also said that Aywek Winnifred Oloya was stripped off the powers of a registrar in June last year and that the party had already decided to dismiss her. Oyat said Mrs Oloya had ‘‘smelt a rat’’ and decided to jump ship from the FDC to NRM for fear of being disgraced with a sack.
At a press conference yesterday, Betty Aol Ochan, the Gulu woman Member of Parliament alleged that Mrs Oloya had swindled about 3 million shillings belonging to a group of FDC supporters. Acholi Times could not get a comment from Mrs Oloya on the allegations.
