Police blocks Bobi Wine’s concert in Gulu

The Police in Gulu District over the weekend blocked Kyadondo East Member of Parliament Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi wine from holding a concert.  Bobi wine was set to entertain his fans in Gulu Municipality at Smiling Panda on Sunday evening in his much anticipated concert dubbed “Kyarenga Extra”.  Many of his fans, some donning red berrets, had already begun flocking venue for the concert by Sunday evening hoping to catch a glimpse of the pop star-turned-politician’s stage performances.  However, the Police stopped the event saying the organizers never got clearance from them to hold the concert.  Anti-riot police officers earlier in the day destroyed several banners and posters within Gulu Municipality that were used to advertise Bobi Wine’s concert.  The Aswa River Region Police Commander Ezekiel Emitu told Next Radio in an interview that since they were not informed in advance, they couldn’t provide security for the concert.  “We never received any information from organizers of the event that a concert was going to be organised at Smiling Panda, therefore we couldn’t allow it to proceed because we wouldn’t be able to provide security. We have therefore advised them not to proceed with their show,” Mr Emitu said.  He also said that the management of Smiling Panda where the event was to be held were never informed. Daily Monitor wasn’t able to get clarifications from management of Smiling Panda by press time.  “We won’t accept the event to proceed because the organizers never complied with the laws,” Mr Emitu said.  Bobi wine who was already in Gulu with his fire base crew in a post on his Facebook page shortly after being blocked from proceeding with the concert however said they had notified the police three weeks ago in advance about the concert. “So yet again out concert in Gulu has been blocked! We wrote to them (police) three weeks ago informing them of the show and requested that we need security. We complied with all the laws and invested a lot of resources preparing for the show,” Bobi wine explained.  Bobi wine, however, said they will stop at nothing to challenge such kind of injustice and gross violation of rights.