Shareholder wants Red Pepper wound up
A MAJORITY shareholder in the original weekly Pepper Publications Limited, now The Red Pepper, a daily city tabloid, wants the newspaper to fold.
By Hillary Nsambu
A MAJORITY shareholder in the original weekly Pepper Publications Limited, now The Red Pepper, a daily city tabloid, wants the newspaper to fold.
Dr. Nkamuhayo Rwacumika filed a petition in the High Court last week seeking orders to wind up the newspaper.
Rwacumika contends that in 2000, he together with James Mujuni, Richard Tusiime, Patrick Mugumya, Dennis Sabiiti and Arinaitwe Rugyendo, started a newspaper, which they initially called The Pepper Publications Limited as a private company limited by shares.
According to the petition, Rwacumika contributed 50%, the largest amount of shares held by an individual in the company, while the other directors held 10% each.
He also contends that after they had assigned themselves specific duties, he became the chairman and managing director and the main signatory to the company’s bank account.
Rwacumika alleges that his fellow directors later sidelined him and started running the company in a ‘high-handed manner’ and forged his signature several times to withdraw colossal amounts of money from the company bank account.
According to the documents filed in court, Rwacumika developed irreconcilable differences with the other directors after they allegedly allotted his shares to an outsider, changed the paper’s editorial policy and the style of managing the company.
He complains that his fellow directors insisted on practicing sensational journalism and publishing pornographic materials, which he considered offensive to morality and the basic principles of journalism.
Rwacumika states in the petition that when he expressed his displeasure and communicated the public outcry about what was going on in the paper, his fellow directors started undermining and plotting his exit.
Rwacumika, who is represented by Lex Uganda Advocates & Solicitors, also accuses his fellow directors of breaching the company constitution when they held several illegal board meetings under the chairmanship of the person to whom they allotted his shares without his consent and passed several resolutions, which were aimed at altering the company share holder structure.
He also alleges that the illegal meetings were aimed at making new allotments of the shares so that they could appoint new shareholders and directors of the company and change the signatories on the bank account without his participation.
According to court procedures, the accused are expected to respond to the allegations within 14 days.
Rwacumika owns the Kampala African FM Radio and the Greater African Radio in Mbarara.
He is also the director of Pan African Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
A MAJORITY shareholder in the original weekly Pepper Publications Limited, now The Red Pepper, a daily city tabloid, wants the newspaper to fold.
Dr. Nkamuhayo Rwacumika filed a petition in the High Court last week seeking orders to wind up the newspaper.
Rwacumika contends that in 2000, he together with James Mujuni, Richard Tusiime, Patrick Mugumya, Dennis Sabiiti and Arinaitwe Rugyendo, started a newspaper, which they initially called The Pepper Publications Limited as a private company limited by shares.
According to the petition, Rwacumika contributed 50%, the largest amount of shares held by an individual in the company, while the other directors held 10% each.
He also contends that after they had assigned themselves specific duties, he became the chairman and managing director and the main signatory to the company’s bank account.
Rwacumika alleges that his fellow directors later sidelined him and started running the company in a ‘high-handed manner’ and forged his signature several times to withdraw colossal amounts of money from the company bank account.
According to the documents filed in court, Rwacumika developed irreconcilable differences with the other directors after they allegedly allotted his shares to an outsider, changed the paper’s editorial policy and the style of managing the company.
He complains that his fellow directors insisted on practicing sensational journalism and publishing pornographic materials, which he considered offensive to morality and the basic principles of journalism.
Rwacumika states in the petition that when he expressed his displeasure and communicated the public outcry about what was going on in the paper, his fellow directors started undermining and plotting his exit.
Rwacumika, who is represented by Lex Uganda Advocates & Solicitors, also accuses his fellow directors of breaching the company constitution when they held several illegal board meetings under the chairmanship of the person to whom they allotted his shares without his consent and passed several resolutions, which were aimed at altering the company share holder structure.
He also alleges that the illegal meetings were aimed at making new allotments of the shares so that they could appoint new shareholders and directors of the company and change the signatories on the bank account without his participation.
According to court procedures, the accused are expected to respond to the allegations within 14 days.
Rwacumika owns the Kampala African FM Radio and the Greater African Radio in Mbarara.
He is also the director of Pan African Centre for Strategic and International Studies.