The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Justice Jane Abodo has rejected requests from top city lawyers to remove former Bank of Uganda Deputy Governor Louis Kasekende and the former Director for Commercial Banks Supervision Justine Bagyenda from a charge sheet.
The charge sheet already has Benedict Sekabira, BoU’s Director for Financial Markets Development Coordination (FMDC).T
Lawyer Timothy Masembe and Robert Kirunda are reported to have met the DPP and pleaded that their clients Kasekende and Bagyenda be removed from the charge sheet, pleas that were rejected by the tough Lady Justice.
Instead it is reported that she has directed Grace Akullo, the director of the Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Department (CIID) to speed up investigations.
There have been queries over why the (CIID) has not initiated investigations on Sekabira, despite the DPP giving them a go ahead.
On July, 2020 , Akullo wrote to the BoU Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile informing him that Director Sekabira would be charged in court over illegally possessing land titles belonging to closed banks.“
“This is to inform you that the Director public Prosecutions sanctioned the matter for the suspect to appear in Court and the purpose of this communication is to request you release Mr. Benedict Sekabira to report at CID headquarters on July 30, 2020, such that he can be produced in court for the charges of concealing title deeds under Sections 278 of the Penal Code,” reads Akullo’s letter to Mutebile.
The DPP further wrote to the CIID directing that a forensic audit be carried out on the homes of Sekabira, forever Deputy Governor Louis Kasekende and Justine Bagyenda, the former BoU director for commercial banks supervision.
The Auditor General should be asked to carry out a specific forensic audit to establish whether or not the continued charging of interest on loans when the banks are in liquidation is irregular since the banking business stops at the time of closure,” directed the DPP.
The above processes, explained the DPP, would help in establishing the current position of the titles.
However with the above orders, the CIID is yet to act and, to make matters more suspicious, it emerged this week that a senior police detective who has been handling the files was summarily dropped without reason.
