In his calculated move, President Yoweri Museveni delayed the signing of the instrument confirming the appointment of Justice Jane Frances Abodo as the new Principal Judge which delayed her from officially entering her new office even though Justice Jane Kajuga who was keeping the office in Acting capacity vacated it and went back to her chambers at the Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court building which is opposite the ministry of health headquarters in Wandegeya
Highly placed State House sources told Ono Bwino that the President did it intentionally because he didn’t want Justice Abodo to leave vacant the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) where she was a Director since he was still studying the possible candidates recommended to him by his handlers and intelligence.
The appointing authority was very careful because the job was not advertise by the Public Service Commission as required by the law.
“The President surprised many by appointing Lino Anguzu as Justice Abodo’s replacement. Many people in the legal fraternity were very sure that the job was going to be given to a judge as it has been the case since the times of Justice Richard Butera who was the first person to occupy that office after the writing of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda, but us in intelligence, we were not surprised,” a senior intelligence officer disclosed.
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He admitted that their bosses in intelligence and security circles who are responsible for investigating crimes guided and changed the earlier plan where the President was advised to appoint Justice Abodo as a Justice of the Court of Appeal or Supreme Court and appoint Justice Kajuga as a Principal Judge and a State House legal officer to be appointed as DPP.
This website understands that Justice Simon Peter Kinobe of the Civil Division of the High Court was among those lobbying for the DPP job and one of his closest friends told this reporter that he boasted in the corridors of the Twed towers where his chambers are situated that he is in the transit as Justice Dr. Douglas Singiza was appointed as the chairperson of the Judicial Service Commission
During his time in the judiciary, Dr. Singiza was very careful and avoided handling controversial files fearing that they could spoil his chances of better things ahead.
Sources related that Justice Emmanuel Baguma of the Criminal Division of the High Court was also interested in the job of being DPP so that he could also head a big government agency and was not happy when Justice Singiza was appointed to head the Judicial Service Commission, he was very sure that he was going get the appointment.
This website has also established that there was a team which was lobbying for Justice Alice Komuhangi Khaukha of the Crimes War Division of the High Court to take the job since before being appointed a judge of the High Court, she was among the celebrated prosecutors at the DPP’s offices.
However, sources revealed that when Museveni consulted his handlers in intelligence and other investigations departments like Defence Intelligence and Security (DIS), police’s Crime Intelligence and police’s Criminal Investigations Departments (CID), they all proposed Anguzu as the suitable replacement for Abodo.
“Anguzu was in the middle of 2010 twin Kampala bombing investigations together with his boss the late Joan Kagezi who was assassinated because of that case. From then, he has been guiding investigating officers and operatives on how to deal with complicated criminals and that’s why he was assigned to head the docket of the International Crimes War department and he has helped a lot in fighting terrorism and other crimes related to treason,” a source said.
By the time of his appointment, Anguzu has been in charge of the following files; Jamil Mukulu Kyagulanyi the founding Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and others, Dr Kizza Besigye and others, Nickson Agasirwe and others, Umar Magala and others.
Sources told this website that the President is closely following those files and has been constantly interacting with Anguzu to brief him that’s why it was easy for him to appoint him as DPP after being recommended by a number of his handlers.
Justice Abodo also played a strong role in Anguzu’s appointment because sources said that when the president asked her the person she wished to replace her, she recommended him and, on several occasions, whenever she was summoned to State House, she usually moved with him to brief the President on a number of issues.
Sources said that when Anguzu established that there was evidence pinning Agasirwe and other former policemen in the murder of Kagezi, he pleaded for their arrest and when they delayed to execute his wish, and upon learning that the suspects were planning to run out of the country, he contacted the president who ordered for their immediate arrest.
Anguzu is one of the corruption scandals free prosecutors and when he was State Attorney at Buganda Road Chief Magistrate Court, lawyers were not happy with him because he was sanctioning files even though they had tried their best to compromise him.
However, criminal lawyers that were interviewed by Ono Bwino during the course of this expose dislosed that Anguzu is bad news to the criminal practice in the country because he is a person who has been advising security to hold suspects past the agreed time because he always wants to gather enough evidence against them
“When you visit Upper prison Luzira, a number of suspects who were being prosecuted by Anguzu were badly tortured, what I know about him, he doesn’t care about human rights, he only wants to secure convictions. Under his leadership, expected hard core crimes suspects should be ready for dark days ahead,” one of the lawyers said.
