EC bosses involved in sh9bn saga face arrest
Exclusive info on news desk indicate that President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has instructed the Director of Criminal Investigations in Police AIGP Grace Akullo to arrest all officials attached to Electoral Commission (EC) that were involved in sh9bn Printing scandal.
According to information obtained from reliable State House sources, the President wrote to AIGP Grace Akullo last week, ordering her to arrest any EC official that was involved in the sh9bn printing saga.
The inside sources say after the letter was delivered, the President again made a phone call to Director CID, giving her more instructions.
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“Any EC official who has been pinned during investigations must be arrested and charged before courts of law,” a security source quoted the President to have said.
Sources further say that President also ordered CID boss to have former Minister in charge of Presidency Ester Mbayo to be fully investigated and if found to have been involved in the saga, be arrested and charged.
Police had earlier summoned Mbayo to CID Headquarters, Kibuli for statement recording, but the Speaker of Parliament Hon Jacob Oulanya informed police that Hon Mbayo was out of the Country on official duties. The Speaker promised to send her to Kibuli for a statement when she returns.
Recently President Museveni while addressing Cabinet at Kololo said he will arrest government officials involved in corruption and other related scandals.
Last month, the media broke a story on how police had summoned nine top bosses attached to Electral Commission over sh9bn printing saga.
According to sources in police, who are attached to CID Headquarters, Kibuli in economic department that handles the matter; say the officials whom they did not disclose will appear at CID Headquarters, Kibuli for grilling.
“We summoned nine EC top officials for their statement in relation to sh9bn saga but will appear at different days, and all will be grilled by the end of next week,” the source says.
The source further says among the summoned officials two are Commissioners, one senior Administrator, three from Department of Finance, three from procurement and one from legal.
Another insider at EC told us that one of the summoned top bosses demanded sh2bn to make sure the deal went through.
Detectives at the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) headquarters at Kibuli, Kampala last month intercepted and recovered sh600m. The money was reportedly being delivered to a government official for doing a good job during the Printing and Publishing deal between the EC and the UPPC.
In the run-up to the 2021 polls, UPPC was awarded a deal to gazette for them (EC) the 2021-2026 electoral roadmap and the successfully elected political leaders from the 2021-2026 general elections. Angeyo reportedly approved this deal.
Legally, UPPC had to receive 9 billion. However, other sources say she also made sure that the pay was huge so as to benefit from the deal.
The fact is that EC had to print stuff relating to the gazettement of polling stations, display of voters register (in December 2019) and in that month alone, EC paid sh1,312,726,000 to UPPC.
The UPPC policy prohibits payment of commission on such business because the Corporation gets such jobs by law implying whether anyone goes to Jinja road to pitch for business or not, the EC must print at UPPC.
As soon as the money came, 2 UPPC board members and two management officials convened a meeting in the Corporation’s Kampala office where they strategized.