Bwengye Ready To Forgive Ssemo

By Richard Mutumba Francis Bwengye, the leader of the Democratic Party splinter group, said yesterday he was ready to reconcile with Dr. Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere to reunite the party. "The legal and established leadership of DP under Francis Bwengye has always been and still is amenable to receiving back its lost colleagues who have worked to destroy the party and take it into the movement," Bwengye said at a press conference. The conference was to inform the public on developments in the party, especially efforts to reunite the DP leadership. Flanked by his secretary general, Mariano Drametu, Bwengye said the door would remain open to allow the "lost sheep" realise their mistakes and seek to rejoin the fold. "We have gone a long way to ensure that we attract back members of our leadership who deserted the party at their will. We would like to see a united Democratic Party and we will achieve this," Bwengye said. DP split into two groups last November when some of its leaders decided to convene a national delegates conference. The conference was stopped by a court injunction, but members held a national council meeting in which they suspended the party president, Ssemogerere, secretary general, Damiano Lubega and the national treasurer, Ssebaana Kizito. Yesterday, Bwengye insisted that Ssemogerere was neither the DP leader nor its spokesman. Ends