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The murder trial of businessman Francis Onebe has stalled over the absence of the judge.

When the case came up for mention on Wednesday, the matter was adjourned to May 27, 2024, because the trial judge Michael Elubu is finalising Thomas Kwoyelo’s trial in Gulu.

In the last session, Pentagon Security Company’s former manager denied allegations that he orchestrated a plan to murder his sister, Immaculate Mary Blessing Aiso.

Charles Okello was responding to a question posed by defence lawyers in a case in which Francis Onebe is accused of killing his wife, Aiso.

Onebe is battling charges of murder together with Security guard Bonny Oriekot.

“In a statement recorded from Gerald Abaasi, it is alleged that on September 30, 2020, you met with Brian Kwezira and orchestrated a plan to kill your sister,” counsel Patrick Kasumba put it to Okello, who said it is false.

Kasumba was assisted by lawyers David Oluka and Joshua Emorut.

Abaasi’s statement was recorded by investigating officer Jacob Okello, the police officer then attached to the Criminal Investigations Directorate’s Kibuli headquarters.

On March 21, 2024, Okello told the court presided over by Elubu that he did not know Kwezira. Kwezira is the executive director of Kwizera Bus Company.

Okello also rubbished allegations that he paid shillings 150 million to some people including Kwizera to murder Aiso.

The court heard that Aiso was strangled to death and her body was stealthily brought to her matrimonial home in Munyonyo.

Allegations

Onebe, 63, an accountant by profession, is accused of murdering Aiso and later dumping her body in a septic tank. The offence of murder elicits a maximum sentence of death on conviction.

The businessman together with his security guard Bonny Oriekot, 26, have spent over two years on remand at Luzira Prison after being denied bail twice.

Background

On January 6, 2021, Onebe reported a case of his missing wife at Buziga Police Post and investigations commenced. He claimed that his wife was picked up by plainclothes operatives travelling in a ‘drone’ and taken to an unknown destination.

A week later, her body was recovered from a septic tank at the couple’s residence by the joint security team headed by the Crime Investigation Department of the Police Force.

Police preliminary investigations reveal that Onebe and his wife, Aiso, parted ways and after 14 years reunited and formally married until her murder.

Following a Police probe, Onebe was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife before Makindye Chief Magistrates Court and later committed to the High Court for trial after the completion of investigations.

He is battling murder charges together with Oriekot, a security guard attached to Pentagon Security.

In the committal papers, the Director of Public Prosecutions reveals that Onebe and Aiso had a dispute over sorcery, resulting in the death of his wife.