ICC petition: FDC chairperson arrested over fraud

Dec 22, 2019

“This followed a tip-off from concerned residents, who reported that he had an EC national voters’ register from which he was coping names and National Identification Numbers and filling the ICC petition, ” Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga said.

 
FORGERY        FDC     CRIME   
 

Police in Namayingo district has arrested Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) official Joseph Wanjala for using details from the Electoral Commission's (EC) national voters' register to fill the party International Criminal Court petition against President Yoweri Museveni.

The territorial Police in Namayingo last week took the forms from Wanjala, 44, who is currently in detention at Namayingo Police station on charges of forgery and unlawful possession of government stores.
 
The offence of forgery attracts a maximum sentence of three years imprisonment on conviction, while unlawful possession of Government stores elicits a seven-year jail term.
 
This comes barely a month after the ‘People's Government' leader, Rtd Col Kizza Besigye, launched a campaign to collect two million signatures in order to ask International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Justice Fatou Bensouda, to prosecute Museveni and his implicated officials on alleged crimes against humanity.
 
According to Police spokesperson Fred Enanga, Wanjala was caught red-handed copying details from the voters' register for Rabolo Jesus Restoration Church at Lolwe sub-county to fill the petition.
 
"This followed a tip-off from concerned residents, who reported that he had an EC national voters' register from which he was coping names and National Identification Numbers and filling the ICC petition, " Enanga said.
 
He added that Wanjala was pressing his thumbprint against every name he wrote to signify alleged ownership, whereas not.
 
Enanga said several statements were obtained from the witness, whose name had been inserted in the petition without his consent.
 
"Both copies of the national voters register and register to petition ICC were recovered and exhibited thumbprints have been taken from the suspect to compare with the ones of the witness," he added.
 
The petition
FDC officials recently said at least 60,000 people had already appended their signatures on the hard copies of the forms for the ICC petition.
The party also said more forms were being dispatched to various districts countrywide for members of the public to sign.
 
The deputy government spokesperson, Col. Shaban Bantariza, recently said FDC's ‘People's Government' is collecting the signatures illegally.
 
He said the unregistered non- governmental organisation has no mandate to refer any government officials to ICC.
 
"The only thing they can do is to collect evidenc and give it to ICC. Their petition does not matter, it is the prosecutor's evidence that matters," Bantariza said. 

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});