Court loosens Bigirimana’s grip on Monitor bank accounts
Judiciary’s permanent secretary, Mr Pius Bigirimana. PHOTO/ FILE
What you need to know:
- Bigirimana's lawsuit arose from reporting that the newspaper did about widespread financial loss in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), which has not been denied.
The High Court in Kampala has vacated the garnishee orders that had blocked the operations of Monitor Publications Ltd, the publisher of Daily Monitor newspaper, in respect to two of its bank accounts held in different commercial banks.
However, the same court declined to vacate another garnishee order of one bank account.
Core to this legal controversy is Judiciary’s permanent secretary, Mr Pius Bigirimana, seeking to enforce a majority Court of Appeal judgment against Monitor, which the publication has appealed to highest court in the land, the Supreme Court.
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“It’s hereby, ordered that the rest of the garnishees (Standard Chartered Bank U Ltd and Stanbic U Ltd), are discharged save for the second garnishee (Citi bank), which has sufficient amount to fulfil the liability,” ruled registrar Jamson Karemani on Monday.
“The amount on the account held with Citi Bank is garnisheed up to only Shs450 million. The rest of the accounts held with the 1st and 3rd garnishee are vacated,” he added.
How it started
Mr Tony Glencross, the managing director of Monitor Publications Ltd, in his affidavit before court, contended that on January 10, the publication filed an application, seeking orders to stay execution of the decree and orders of the Court of Appeal Civil Appeal No.170 of 2022, pending the final disposal of the intended appeal, now pending before the Supreme Court.
The said application seeking orders to stay execution of the decree and orders, was promptly filed by Monitor but is pending allocation of judges to hear it by the Court of Appeal.
Mr Glencross further averred that the aim of the filing the application, was to seek an interim order, staying execution of the aforementioned decree and orders by Mr Bigirimana, until the disposal of the substantive application.
The interim application was heard and a ruling was delivered on Monday, January 20 by Justice Christopher Gashirabake.
In the same ruling, the Judge went on to dismiss Monitor’s application on grounds that there was no “imminent threat” of execution of the orders and that no bill of costs had been taxed.
However, Mr Glencross contends that he was shocked when Mr Bigirimana swiftly obtained a garnishee order the following Monday, January 23, freezing Monitor’s bank accounts held in the commercial banks of Standard Chartered Bank, Citi Bank, and Stanbic Bank.
He added that Mr Bigirimana’s actions had led to the freezing of over Shs1.35 billion held in the three bank accounts, a move that he says had paralyzed the activities of the publication.
“The garnishee order served on our three bankers, has effectively blocked the sum of Shs450 million on our accounts held independently in each of the said banks thus translating to a sum of Shs1.35 billion on top of a bank guarantee of Shs450 million provided by Monitor,” Mr Glencross avers.
Through the publication’s lawyers of Nangwala, Rezida & Co Advocates, Mr Glencross further contends that the garnishee proceedings by Mr Bigirimana, constitute an imminent threat of execution of the Court of Appeal judgment, yet the Supreme Court, which is the last appellate court in the land, hasn’t yet determined their petition.
“…execution of the aforementioned decree and order through garnishee proceedings will render the applicants’ (Monitor) intended appeal to the Supreme Court nugatory,” Mr Glencross avers.
The lawsuit arose from reporting that the newspaper did about widespread financial loss in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), which has not been denied.
Mr Bigirimana was the accounting officer at OPM at the time.
