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    M7’s Top Minister, City Lawyers Face Arrest Over Fraudulent US$250,000,000 Fertilizer Deal – Police…

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    Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson Patrick Onyango

    Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson Patrick Onyango has confirmed that police detectives have kicked off investigations into a fraudulent fertilizer deal involving top minister in President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s government and top city lawyers.

    The file under investigation is on Ref Number SD REF: 74/29/05/2024 and the suspects are charged with the offences of obtaining money by false pretense.

    According to the statement recorded by 48-year-old Nikolaj Roleder, a German national the crime was committed in 2023.

    He narrated before detectives that in 2023, his company that deals in fertilizers received a communication on their official website from a Ugandan (names held) introducing himself as a person contracted by the government of Uganda through the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries to find a fertilizer supplier.

    Nikolaj added that the said officer told them that the government was interested in UREA46.

    When they told him that they have it in stock, they sent him the cooperation offer documents with full details of all the products they produce.

    On 18th October, 2023, the said official sent them back their documents with an approval stamp from the Ministry of Agriculture and on 13th November, 2023, they received an invitation letter signed by one of the cabinet ministers in President Museveni’s government  inviting them for a meeting to discuss the deal.

    The meeting was scheduled to take place between 21st -25th November, 2023.

    Nikolaj stated that together with other directors, they traveled to Uganda for the meeting and were picked from Entebbe International Airport by someone who introduced himself as an official from the Ministry of Agriculture in a white Mercedes Benz  which took them to Golf Course Hotel where they slept.

    The next day, the same official picked them from the hotel and took them to Serena Hotel Kampala to meet four officials who introduced themselves as Uganda government officials.

    During the meeting, they took them through all the procedures.

    The government officials also assured them that government was in urgent need of their fertilizers.

    He stated that however, officers who sit on the contracts committee advised them to register a company in Uganda and because they did not know the process of registering a company in Uganda, the officer who picked them from Entebbe Airport helped them to get a law firm which has offices at Kingdom Building Kampala to help them with the whole process.

    They assigned a female lawyer to handle their issue.

    The company registered was named Roteder and Ebert limited and after the process, they went back to German.

    However, the female lawyer told them to pay a share capital of the company which was US$45000 which they deposited on the lawyer’s bank account at Garden city branch using a swift code by 20th December, 2023.

    In January 2024, they again met members on the contracts committee at Serena hotel Kampala and they were told to pay US$30,000 as registration fees.

    When the money was paid through a Stanbic bank account, two officials from the contracts committee were selected to be in contact with them and to follow up the entire deal until it is sealed off.

    The contact person, according to the Nikolaj told them that they will come back to Uganda to sign the contract with the Ministry of Finance which was supposed to release the money.

    When the time for signing the agreement reached, the Kampala team started giving excuses that they should wait for the Solicitor General and the Attorney General to go through their contract before it is signed.

    When the Attorney General delayed the approval of the contract, the contact persons told them to add another US$100,000 to be given to the Attorney General so that he speeds up the process.

    Nikolaj narrated that when they sensed that they were being played, they refused to send the money and told the officials from Uganda to refund the money they had invested in the deal because they had lost interest in it.

    He explained that the whole deal was worth US$250,000,000 and the condition was to pay a 2% bribe on each consignment that entered Uganda.

    Onyango revealed that they have zeroed on two suspects who masterminded the fraud and they are looking for them to record statements.

    The German nationals have also petitioned State House for help and threatened that if they are not helped, they will declare a bad campaign against Uganda which will include mobilizing investors from Germany not to bring their money to Uganda.

     

    By Sengooba Alirabaki

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    CRIME

    Panic As More Dr Besigye’s Confidants Face Arrest Over Terrorism Charges…

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    Some of the FDC leaders who are currently facing terrorism charges

    The Acting Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) Katonga camp Secretary General Harold Kaija has revealed that there is a deadly clandestine move by security to arrest more of Dr Kizza Besigye’s confidants and charge them with terrorism.

    Kaija said that the development was unmasked to them by colleagues currently detained at Kitalya and Luzira prisons who were deported from Kenya where they had allegedly gone for a political training in democracy.

    Upon their deportation back into Uganda, they were paraded before Nakawa Chief Magistrate where they were charged with terrorism.

    He explained that security agents are using the phones confiscated from the suspects to make calls to their relatives asking them to talk to their people in prison to admit the charges and enter plea bargain with the State so that they can be released.

    Kaija said that they have learnt that security wants to use some of the suspects to pin their leaders in FDC Katonga that they are the ones behind their travel to Kenya with a mission to receive training in terrorism activities so that they can to overthrow President Museveni’s government.

    He said that even though state operatives are doing everything to compromise their people, they are also following all the legal means to make sure they are released that is why they have started with filing bail application in the High Court.

    They have also finalised the move to drag President William Ruto’s government to the East African Court of Justices on allegation of fueling the abduction of their people and illegally deporting them back to Uganda yet they were in his country legally.

    Kaija added that they are also going to petition the East African Law Society president pleading with him to intervene in the imprisonment of their people and compel government to release them without any conditions.

    However, Andrew Katurubuki the Nakawa Court magistrate directed the State to release the suspects’ phones if they are not being used as exhibits and other properties including bank ATMs which were confiscated immediately after their arrest.

    State claims that the 36 suspects who include: Samuel Makokha, Dr George Ekwaro, Simon Rutarondwa, Nasur Basalirwa, Charlse Okello, Walter Obang, George Wanzige and others traveled to Kisumu in Kenya to receive training in terrorism activities.

    The suspects rubbished the allegations and insisted that they are being persecuted politically and courts of law are being used.

     

    By Hadijjah Namagembe

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    CRIME

    City Businesswoman In Tears After Bank Hires Ruthless Court Bailiff To Auction Her Multibillion Properties, Throw Her In Jail…

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    Kampala city businesswoman Teopista Nabbale the proprietor of Teopista & Jesus Holding Limited is in tears after a bank hired ruthless Court Bailiff to auction her multibillion properties over debt.

    Mutesasira a seasoned nonsense court bailiff has confirmed that he received instructions to auction Nabbale’s properties including land in Kabalagala, Kisugu on Block 244 plot 541 Kyadondo Kampala city measuring 0.15 hectares and all the buildings on it.

    “All the occupants of the advertised properties are hereby notified to vacate within fourteen days from the date of this publication, failure of which they shall be forcefully evicted at their own cost,” Mutesasira’s advert published in the daily monitor of Tuesday this week reads in part.

    Nabbale, a member of Kwagalana group that brings together Kampala city tycoons was given 30 days from the date of the publication to clear the debt or lose it.

    theGrapevine has established that recently, Harriet Grace Magala the judge of the Commercial Division of the High Court dismissed Nabbale’s application to stay the execution of the judgment she lost against Cairo bank noting that the applicant had failed to confirm to court that her properties were under threat of being auctioned and there was no proof that she had filed an appeal in the Court of Appeal challenging the High Court decision.

    Nabbale secured a Shs5bn loan from the said financial institution using her land titles as security and in 2023, she entered a consent judgment with the bank promising to pay the money.

    She later protested the amount the bank was claiming that it was demanding from her.

    According to the documents, the bank claimed that it demanded Shs9bn while Nabbale was insisting that the bank only demanded Shs5bn and that they agreed in the consent judgment to pay that amount.

    Court directed her to file an application challenging Shs4bn which she failed to do.

    theGrapevine established that there are criminal charges related to fraud filed against Nabbale at Buganda road court and very soon criminal summons are going to be issued against her.

     

    By Sengooba Alirabaki

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    CRIME

    Ugandan Shipping Company Bosses In Trouble As Court Orders Them To Compensate Kenyans Shs200m For Causing Death Of Their Family Members…

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    Justice Musa Sekaana the head of the Civil Division of the High Court has allowed the registration of the judgment issued in Kenya against a Ugandan shipping company.

    According to court documents, Mary Nyambura Mukuha and Grace Wanjiru Nyambura are suing as legal representatives of the Estate of Paul Nyutu, Stephen Mwaura and John Mukuha Wanjiru who died because of the negligence of a registered agent of Three Way Shipping Group of Companies Limited.

    In her affidavit, Nyambura told Court that they are seeking a court directive to register the judgment issued by Naivasha Chief Magistrate Court so as to execute the orders against Three Ways Shipping Company which is incorporated in Uganda and has offices along Jinja road opposite Jinja road police station.

    She explained to the court that their three people were riding a Motorcycle Reg No. KMCA 016P on 27th October 2013 when they were knocked and killed by a trailer with Ugandan Registration No. plates UAL 839N.

    She added that they instituted a case against the shipping company and fully served them with court documents but they intentionally refused to file a defense and the matter proceeded by way of formal proof.

    The judgment was delivered on 4th march 2020.

    She told court that they executed their judgment and on 30th April, 2023, court issued a court order allowing them to recover a decretal sum, costs and interest from the date of judgment totaling to Kshs 8,607,615/= (UGX 238,204,903.59).

    In his ruling, Justice Ssekaana noted that his court took judicial notice of the fact that Kenya is a Commonwealth country, and it being a protectorate of Britain which has a reciprocal arrangement with Uganda, the matter before him emanates from Naivasha Chief Magistrates Court which is located in Kenya and was properly seized with jurisdiction to hear and determine a matter.

    He explained that it is not the duty of his court to entertain an application for registration of a foreign judgment to sit on appeal over the decision of the original court that delivered the judgment sought to be registered.

    He further wondered why the shipping company does not exercise its right of appeal under the laws of the foreign country challenging the decision passed against it noting that his court only needs to ensure that the applicant complies with the requirements of the courts on registration of foreign judgment which was done.

    The applicants through their lawyers led by Lastone Gulume have started the process of recovering their money including auctioning off the properties owned by the financially troubled shipping companies.

    The Company’s top founding directors Oscar Baitwa and Geoffrey Bahamaiso are also facing criminal charges before the Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court on the allegation of stealing Shs7bn from MTN Uganda.

     

    By Grapevine reporter

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