Council of Elrond

I've long held that Uvatha's ability

He may join another Ringwraith's company during your organization phase and requires no influence to control.

was a means of playing him as a Ringwraith follower, but now I'm not so sure . . . nothing is said about playing him, there. Given that there is a situation where the ability would be used (your RW returned to hand and Uvatha left in play), and given further that the wording makes no direct reference to being a Ringwraith follower, does Uvatha's ability here constitute a RW-Follower enabling ability and may he actually be played from the hand that way?