Two Amuru district National Resistance Movement (NRM) party officials are in police custody over allegations of embezzling funds meant to facilitate Local Council elections. The suspects, identified as Geoffrey Ojera, the NRM District Secretary for Finance, and Martine Oyet, the Administrative Secretary, were arrested on Wednesday and are being held at Amuru Central Police Station.
According to Police, the duo is accused of diverting 2.97 million Shillings from 6.32 million Shillings that had been allocated to facilitate transport refunds and allowances for women council leaders from the district’s 13 sub-counties ahead of Thursday’s elections. David Ongom Mudong, the Aswa West Regional Police Public Relations Officer, confirmed the arrests in a statement issued on Wednesday.
Police say the money is part of the 60 million Shillings released by the NRM Party Secretariat to Amuru District to facilitate preparations for the Women Council and Local Council elections scheduled for July 22 and July 28, respectively. Mudong said preliminary police investigations indicates the alleged fraud occurred on July 22 at the NRM district offices.
It is alleged that the NRM top district party officials, including District Chairperson Wilfred Baguma, Ojera, and Oyet, allegedly distributed less money than had been allocated to the women council leaders. According to Mudong, efforts are underway to arrest the District NRM Chairperson, who is also being investigated in connection with the alleged diversion of funds.
Police detectives have reportedly recovered 1.4 million Shillings from the two suspects, which has been exhibited as part of the ongoing investigations. However, Baguma denied any involvement in the alleged embezzlement, saying his role ended after he signed for the withdrawal of the funds from the party account and handed the money over to the Administrative Secretary, who is the custodian of the district secretariat.
Baguma acknowledged that while the Women Council leaders were supposed to receive 20,000 shillings, the suspects only issued 10,000 shillings to some of the members in four sub-counties of Guru Guru, Lamogi, Amuru and Pabbo. “The women council leaders were supposed to receive 20,000 shillings each, but in some sub-counties they were only given 10,000 shillings. That is where the problem started. When I received the complaint, I immediately called the officials responsible to explain why there was a difference,” Baguma said.
Uganda Radio Network has established that each NRM chairperson in the 203 villages received 10,000 shillings while the party flag bearers for the LCI received 50,000 shillings. Meanwhile, NRM party chairpersons in the 13 sub-counties were allocated 100,000 shillings, and the Chairperson Women League in the sub-counties were to receive 20,000 shillings in facilitation.
Executives of the party, on the other hand, received 1.5 million shillings; security got 500,000 shillings, Women League members at the district got 500,000 shillings, while the party officials allegedly spent 300,000 on transport to withdraw the 60 million shillings. Baguma said the party has so far spent 57.8 million shillings out of the 60 million shillings released from the Party secretariat towards the LCI and Women Council elections since withdrawing the money on Monday.
“We have so far disbursed 57.8 million shillings. The money was not for us to spend but to pass on to the intended beneficiaries, including village chairpersons, party flag bearers, women leaders and sub-county officials,” he explained. The Electoral Commission has scheduled Thursday as the polling day for the election of Village Women Committees, which comprises the Vice Chairperson, Secretary, Publicity Secretary, and Secretary for Finance. Meanwhile, the elections of the LCI chairpersons are slated for July 28 in the 71,214 villages across the country-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
