The State House Anti Corruption Unit alongside Uganda Police have arraigned Mr. Matovu John, an advocate with Ms Matovu & Matovu Advocates before the Anti-Corruption Court on charges of theft by an agent and conspiracy to defraud govt of over UGX 4Billion.

The accused while entrusted as one of the advocates for Busoga Growers Cooperative Union to pursue war loss compensation claims from the government conspired and stole the funds. He joins Basoga Charles, the Chairperson Busoga Growers Cooperative and others who are on trial over the same.

He has been remanded until 16th August 2024.

This cooperatives’ scandal was unearthed after Speaker Anita Among, on August 25, 2023, directed the Sectoral Committee on Tourism, Trade and Industry to conduct an inquiry into the status, governance, resourcing and value for money for public funds allocated to cooperatives during the financial year 2022/23.

The report revealed a pattern of mismanagement and fraudulent activities involving significant sums of money, unauthorised transactions, unaccounted funds, and dubious legal representations, and these have since led to the arrest of several government officials, including MPs