'Strange things' happened to pension scam case- DPP
Bugweri County MP Abdu Katuntu displays a copy of the Daily Monitor at Parliament yesterday. Photo by Geoffrey Sseruyange
What you need to know:
The presiding judicial officer said the State had failed to bring a single witness to testify against the nine suspects over two years.
Parliament- The Director of Public Prosecutions yesterday said “strange things” led to the bungling of the Shs165 billion pension scam case but swore before MPs that “as surely as day follows night, this case, like all other cases will be prosecuted to its logical conclusion”.
Citing corruption and negligence in the prosecution of the case, MPs on the House Legal Affairs committee led by Abdu Katuntu (Bugweri) demanded yesterday that Mr Mike Chibita explains why the Anti-Corruption Court dismissed the matter last month.
Mr Chibita said: “We are in this for a long haul.”
He cited the Cairo International Bank application for an injunction in the civil division of the High Court to stay prosecution of the bank and its managers as wrongful in law.
“The corruption in the Shs165 billion pension scam case is an indication that we have a crisis of confidence in the criminal justice system and Ugandans have lost faith in the DPP and other institutions,” Mr Katuntu said. “Shs165 billion was fiddled and we know the people involved and the bank, yet for two years nothing has been done.”
Waving a copy of yesterday’s Daily Monitor with the headline: “Police bribery killed Shs165b pension scam case,” Mr Katuntu added: “We read in the Monitor that DPP failed to provide evidence and the director CIID is admitting that her officers took bribes to kill the case and that she even met the criminals.
Suspects are confirming that they bribed police. This is purely theatrical.”
Mr Chibita assured MPs how they have “enough evidence” to prosecute the suspects and vowed to take on Cairo International Bank as one of the suspects in the case.
YOU NEED TO READ
