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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