COURT has the ordered army Member of Parliament, Lt. Gen. Caleb Akwandanaho a.k.a Salim Saleh, to pay in full a Greenland Bank loan of sh100m and interest of sh81m.
By Jude EtyangCOURT has the ordered army Member of Parliament, Lt. Gen. Caleb Akwandanaho a.k.a Salim Saleh, to pay in full a Greenland Bank loan of sh100m and interest of sh81m.Justice Okumu Wengi of the Commercial Court passed the decree last week after Saleh’s lawyer, Andrew Bageya, failed to present a proposal for the settlement of the debt. Through a proposal of settlement, Saleh would clear the debt under convenient terms, for instance, by paying in instalments.Okumu Wengi ordered that Saleh pays the loan in full with interest of 25% from June 2000 making the final amount sh181, 904,190.Bageya told court that Saleh was out of the country and tried in vain to get an adjournment to prepare the proposal under Saleh’s instructions.Matthais Sekatawa, representing Bank of Uganda (BOU), the liquidators of Greenland Bank, objected to the adjournment and court granted his objection. Greenland Bank was closed in May 1999 due to insolvency and is currently under liquidation by the central bank.Saleh is said to have obtained the sh100m loan in January 1999.The security for the loan was a share certificate of Calebs International in Greenland investment Limited (GIL) and the loan was supposed to be paid within 2-3 months.Court last year dismissed Saleh’s application to sideline the judgement and allow him to defend himself. The suit was filed in September last year by BOU against Calebs International, which is Saleh’s company.Saleh, a seasoned businessman, was on the board of directors of Greenland Investment Limited, an affiliate company of the once mighty Greenland empire.Last year, during the trial of Sulaiman Kiggundu, former managing director of Greenland Bank who is accused of running it down, Saleh and his wife Jovia, were summoned to testify as defence witnesses.However, the trial has since stalled after the magistrate, Catherine Bamugemereire, abruptly abandoned the case to go abroad for studies.Saleh and Kiggundu were also at the centre of the 1998 UCB-Greenland bank saga, which led to Greenland Bank’s liquidation.Saleh, during the UCB sale saga, publicly confessed to having attempted to buy majority shares from UCB through Greenland Bank, which was illegal.Ends