Minister Lugoloobi expected in court today

The detained State minister for Planning, Mr Amos Lugoloobi, is expected to be produced before the Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala today.

Mr Lugoloobi was on Friday arrested in connection with the mismanagement of iron sheets meant for the Karachunas (youth warriors) in Karamoja.

He was reportedly heading to Entebbe International Airport.

“Definitely, with no doubt, he (Minister Lugoloobi) will be arraigned before court tomorrow (today) unless something big happens,” a source close to the prosecution chain, who asked not want to be named, told this publication last evening.

When contacted to corroborate the claims, Ms Jacquelyn Okui, the spokesperson in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), said they have sanctioned Mr Lugoloobi’s police file and that it is now up to the police to take him to court and have him formally charged.

“Criminal charges against Hon Amos Lugoloobi, the State Minister for Planning, were sanctioned and consented to by the DPP in respect of the Karamoja iron sheets scandal, and the DPP directed the police to produce him in court for plea,” Ms Okui said last evening.

She added that the DPP’s office is still processing the case files for other suspects implicated in the scandal that has since sucked in dozens of Cabinet ministers, MPs and chief administrative officers (CAOs).

Sources at the weekend said the police file for minister Nandutu had also been sanctioned by the office of the DPP.

When asked whether junior Karamoja Affairs minister Agnes Nandutu will also be charged alongside minister Lugoloobi, Ms Okui declined to comment.

“We cannot comment about that one,” she said.

Mr Lugoloobi, who is also the Ntenjeru North County MP, reportedly received 600 iron sheets meant for the vulnerable people in Karamoja Sub-region.

He was one of the ministers who last Friday sent back iron sheets to the Office of the Prime Minister in Namanve, following President Museveni’s orders to his ministers to return the iron sheets or pay in cash the equivalent.

In February, the minister admitted to have used some of the iron sheets to roof a shed for his goats on his farm in Misanga Village, Bbaale Sub-county in Kayunga District.

He, however, removed them after there was public outcry over the ministers who allegedly diverted the iron sheets.

arrested

Popularly referred to as taata bisode by his constituents in Kayunga, Mr Lugoloobi is the second minister to be arrested over the mismanagement of the building materials.

Karamoja Affairs Minister Mary Goretti Kitutu, who is at the centre of the scandal, was last Friday was released on cash bail of Shs10m after spending a week in Luzira prison.

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