Ono Bwino can authoritatively report that troubled outgoing speaker of parliament Annet Anita Among has dispatched a team of her confidants to seek Gen Salim Saleh’s audience.
The decision according to highly placed sources close to her resulted from Wednesday evening meeting where her lawyers led by criminal and constitutional law giant Caleb Alaka asked her to prepare her sureties and good documents that can help them to pursue her bail application if the situation worsens and she is charged at the Anti Corruption Court.
Sources said that the lawyers told Among that detectives handling the matter have briefed both the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and the Inspector General of Government (IGG) who all agreed that the available evidence can sustain the criminal charges related to illicit enrichment and money laundering.
The lawyers according to sources told her that chances are minimal that she will not be arraigned before courts of law once the President, who is closely monitoring the ongoing investigations authorises the move.
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Sources said that Among’s lawyers told her that currently, they should concentrate on negotiating simple bail conditions.
They assured her that they are engaging their contacts in the judiciary not to be tough on her.
She was also asked to use her contacts to engage other influential officials. This is the reason why she dispatched her confidants to travel to Kapeeka where Gen Saleh is camped and seek his audience.
Ono Bwino has learnt that for the last one month, Among has been looking for Gen Saleh’s audience to seek his support to retain her position as a speaker of parliament but he kept telling her that he was busy with other urgent national issues.
As lawyers are negotiating Among’s simple bail conditions, her close henchman Fred Mukasa Mbidde the Democratic Party (DP) national vice president said that they are also strategizing on how to save her financial empire after Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) who is supervising the ongoing operation against Among threatened that all the properties recovered from her will be auctioned and the money will be deposited in the country’s treasury.
It should be remembered that when former Chief Justice Owiny Dollo issued tough bail conditions guidelines to judicial officers, Among supported him.
On simple criminal offences, a suspect can spend a month pursuing bail application even though sometimes, tough conditions are set like recently, journalist Anthony Mukose after spending a month on remand, he was released on a cash bail of Shs5m cash on the offence of broadcasting without a licence.
However, veteran journalist Andrew Mwenda said that in Ugandan courts, it is very difficult to win a case against Among since she has been influencing the promotion of judicial officers and compromising them through giving girlfriends, boyfriends and relatives of the judicial officers’ juicy jobs in parliament.
However right now, it’s only President Museveni, Gen. Muhoozi and Gen Salim Saleh who can save the Bukedea iron lady.
