Former UBC boss petitions Court of Appeal over verdict

Dec 02, 2014

Former UBC operations manager, engineer Godfrey Luggya who was convicted of fraudulent misappropriation of power and conspiracy to defraud the Government, has appealed to the Court of Appeal.

By Hillary Nsambu

Former UBC operations manager, engineer Godfrey Luggya and the general manager of Kings Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) radio FM, Harrison Magezi Busingye, who were convicted of fraudulent misappropriation of power and conspiracy to defraud the Government, have appealed to the Court of Appeal.


Luggya and Busingye are challenging the trial judge’s judgment seeking to quash their conviction and asking the appellate court to set aside the sentence, arguing that they were erroneously convicted.

Meanwhile, the two convicts have also applied to the Court of Appeal to be released on bail pending the hearing and determination of their appeal. The court has since fixed December 11, 2014 at 9.00 am on which they would present their reasons for bail.

 Luggya, who was employed by the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC), as operations manager, was indicted with abuse of office under the Anti-Corruption Act and conspiracy to defraud the Government of its money,

Busingye was indicted with fraudulent misappropriation of power and conspiracy to defraud under the Penal Code Act.

High Court trial judge Lawrence Gidudu found both of them guilty as they had been charged and; he sentenced each of them to two years imprisonment on each of the offences, but running concurrently.

The prosecution had alleged that Luggya, in his capacity as UBC operations manager, authorized Kings Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) FM to use the technical facilities of UBC at Kigulya Hill – Masindi without the authority of UBC board of directors and the management.

The UBC facilities that were offered single handedly to KBC by Luggya included equipment like a generator and the transmitter and the mast and also the premises without a tenancy agreement of the higher authority.

The prosecution said that Luggya’s actions led to the loss of revenue to UBC.

At trial Busingye opted to keep quiet in his defence while Luggya made a sworn statement vehemently denying the offences.                                      

 

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