President Museveni orders arrest of EC bosses

President Museveni orders arrest of EC bosses. President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni who also doubles as Commander In Chief of armed Forces has instructed the Director In Charge of Criminal Investigations in Police AIGP Grace Akullo to arrest all officials attached to Electoral Commission (EC) that were involved in shs 9bn  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 shs 9bn printing saga.

The Inside sources says after the letter was delivered, the President again made a phone call to Director CID giving her more instructions.

“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 been involved in the saga, arrested and charged.

Police had earlier summoned Mbayo to CID 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 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, Spyreports broke a story on how police had summoned nine top bosses attached Electro Commission over shs 9bn printing saga.

According to our police source who is attached to CID Kibuli in economic department that handles the matter says the officials whom he did not disclose will appear in CID Kibuli for grilling.

“We summoned nine EC top officials for their statement in relation to shs 9bn saga but will appear at different days but all will be grilled by 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 the summoned top bosses demanded shs 2bn to make sure the deal went through.

Detectives at the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) headquarters at Kibuli, Kampala last month intercepted and recovered Shs600m that 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.

When we contacted CID PRO ASP Charles Twiine on phone he assured us that investigations on EC officials are going on and when they are done, the suspects will appear before courts of law.

“What I can assure you is that EC officials were summoned and recorded their statement and we are investigating the matter but I can’t tell the full details,” says Twiine during a telephone interview.  He further confirmed to us that Hon Mbayo reported to CID Kibuli and was grilled about the UPPC saga.

THE DEAL

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 Shs1,312,726,000 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.

Also, read; CID probes Local Government Ministry, UPPC over security stamps