Woman arrested at Parliament for allegedly trying to bribe MP
The woman veils her head with a bag at Parliament yesterday. PHOTO BY ISAAC IMAKA
Police are holding a woman who allegedly tried to bribe a Member of Parliament at the House yesterday. The woman, only identified as Rose, was yesterday arrested and handed to police detectives attached to Parliament after allegedly trying to bribe Eastern Uganda Youth MP Peter Ogwang.
According to information given to Daily Monitor by a House police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to speak to the press, the woman, who was wearing a blue and white stripped T-shirt, had come to influence Mr Ogwang to drop evidence he is believed to have implicating senior officials in alleged misappropriation of public funds in the Office of the Prime Minister.
“That woman came in here at around 9am and we were called in to arrest her by the bodyguards of the honourable member who said she had tried to bribe the MP,” the officer said.
“We have already sent her to the main office in town to continue with investigations,” he added. While speaking to the detectives in the presence of journalists, Mr Ogwang said the woman telephoned him on Saturday and asked to meet him over the documents he has implicating officials in the OPM in the on-going investigations.
The arrest
He said he asked the woman to come to Parliament on Monday since he was busy attending a committee meeting in Entebbe and could not meet her.
It was when she turned up yesterday morning that he asked his bodyguards to arrest her and hand her over to Parliament police.
While at police, the suspect told the officers that she works at National Water and Sewerage Corporation but she was found with an expired identity card belonging to the firm, which detectives said appeared false.
Detectives declined to provide a second name and did not say how much money the woman had on her. MP Ogwang did not give details of the money, either. The MP sits on the Presidential Affairs Committee, which has been investigating alleged misappropriation of money from the OPM.
Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi is expected to appear before the committee this morning to assist the investigation.
