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A faction of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has moved to block its embattled leaders from accessing party bank accounts as it fights for recognition amid an escalating row over ‘dirty money’.

Its leader and Kampala Lord Mayor, Erias Lukwago, told the media on Monday that they had issued communications to the banks about the management of the party accounts.

“We have the secretary general (Nandala Mafabi) and the treasurer (Geoffrey Ekanya) as signatories to the party accounts who are in suspension. As long as they remain in suspension, their signatures on those accounts cannot be valid," he said.

This was during a media briefing at the offices of FDC founding president Dr Kizza Besigye on Katonga Road in Kampala.

Lukwago, who also serves as FDC deputy president for Buganda region, was on Tuesday last week appointed by the party’s extraordinary national delegates conference as interim president for six months.

The conference, which was convened by the FDC national chairperson, Wasswa Birigwa, suspended Mafabi and party president Patrick Amuriat after accusing them of having betrayed the party they helped found in 2004.

They were suspended together with Ekanya and Boniface Bamwenda, the party’s electoral commission chairperson.

However, all the suspended officials vowed to stay put and remain running the party, describing the move to throw them out of office as “comedy”.

Dragged to court

Lukwago also told the media that they had filed a civil suit in the High Court against Bamwenda “for holding out as chief electoral commissioner of the party without being duly elected or appointed by the national delegates conference as stipulated in the party’s constitution”.

“The third charge against Bamwenda is rolling out the election roadmap without the approval of the national executive committee,” he said.

He assured the country that “we are going to conduct a credible electoral process befitting the party our forefathers established, and the constitution is respected in that regard”.

“Amuriat was suspended, and a resolution was made that disciplinary procedures should ensue, and we are working towards its realisation. You shall not commit a wrong and go free,” he told his rivals based at the party headquarters in Najjanankumbi on Entebbe Road.

The Amuriat camp will hold elections for the party’s executive committee members during the national delegates conference scheduled for October 6. Both Amuriat and Nandala were nominated last week to retain their positions in the party. Ekanya was also nominated to retain his position.