Ono Bwino can exclusively report that embattled former speaker of parliament Annet Anita Among is desperately fighting to compromise the judiciary to have her incarcerated henchmen who include former parliament Communication and Corporate Affairs director Chris Obore released on Court bail.
Others facing the same charges as Obore include; Daniel Adilo who was the director of human resource, Leonard Okema the Executive Secretary in the Office of the Speaker, Rajab Kaaya Ssemalulu the Principal Research Officer, Emmanuel Emuron Okwi the Principal Protocol Officer Vincent Otebata Capacity Development Officer and Method Murembe the Chief Executive Officer Uganda Parliamentary SACCO who were charged with offences of embezzlement and causing financial loss, money laundering and have been on remand for almost a month.
Next week, all the accused persons are expected before Justice Michael Elubu the head of the Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court who is going to preside over their bail application hearing.
After losing their first attempt to be released on Court bail, Obore and others are scared and Ono Bwino can exclusively report that a few weeks back, they sent a desperate message to their former boss to fight for them to be released otherwise their next decision might heavily affect her.
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Sources disclosed that the accused persons are under pressure to enter a plea-bargain deal with the State in return for a lighter sentence once they plead guilty to the charges.
However, the condition is that they should support the State’s case against Among by becoming a State witnesses.
“State wants to use a format which was used in the Joan Kagezi case where one of the accused persons entered a plea bargain and was given a lighter sentence. That person became a state witness against others and he is being prepared to testify against a former police boss who participated in Kagezi murder,” a senior detective told Ono Bwino.
He added that prison life has already squeezed the accused persons especially the humiliations they are getting from fellow inmates and prisons warders who have branded them national thieves.
“On Monday, as we were preparing their documents to come to Court, Murembe survived a slap from a prison warden, he abused him and called him an idiot and a national thief for touching his uniform accidentally,” a prison source told this website.
Ono Bwino has further learnt that during last week’s engagement with detectives from the Office of the Inspector General of Government (IGG) concerning a plea bargain deal, one of the accused persons told them how inhuman Among was insisting that they are in prison on charges which they never benefited from.
He admitted that it is true, Among was using their bank accounts to transfer her money that is why all the amounts they withdrew were delivered to her in cash.
“I will never forget the day when Shs900m was deposited to my bank account, she summoned me to her office and directed two of her bodyguards to escort me to withdraw the money and bring it to her office. After withdrawing the money, I tipped a bank teller who helped me with Shs100.000 but madam was very furious and in the presence of the bodyguards, she slapped me,” he retorted.
Because of the tough prison life, Obore always moves to maverick city lawyer Male Mabirizi for legal advice and he always keeps on complaining and accusing him of tipping State on criminal charges to slap on them.
“Mabirizi, you’re the first person to wish me prison life, IGG used the same charge sheet template which you used when instituting a private prosecution against us. But how can we survive this life. Man I have a young family,” a prison source quoted Obore.
He added that even though Among is under house arrest, she still has influence and it is the reason why she has not yet recorded a statement with detectives so that her criminal files can be sanctioned even though three of them are ready.
Her lawyers are struggling to compromise the system so that the three ready criminal files can be consolidated into one.
It should be remembered that veteran journalist Andrew Mwenda recently alleged that it will be very difficult for Among to lose a case in any Court in Uganda because she had a hand in recruiting most judicial officers on top of giving juicy jobs to their girlfriends, boyfriends and other relatives.
