Lawyer suspended for misconduct
Oct 20, 2009
THE disciplinary committee of the Uganda Law Council has suspended a Kampala advocate, Geoffrey Nangumya, for six months for gross professional misconduct.
By Vision Reporter
THE disciplinary committee of the Uganda Law Council has suspended a Kampala advocate, Geoffrey Nangumya, for six months for gross professional misconduct.
Nangumya is accused of illegally repossessing a bus which had been confiscated by court. In the process, he allegedly assaulted Allen Janyare, the complainant. The committee also ordered Nangumya to pay sh10m with interest as damages to the complainant for the mental torture he suffered, plus sh1m as costs of the case.
“Verbal threats, physical violence and abduction of the complainant orchestrated by the lawyer, which conduct is corroborated by evidence on record, we cannot but hold that the defendant’s actions were highhanded and unbecoming of an advocate and, besides being repugnant, were criminal as well,†the three man committee, headed by Elijah Wante, said on Friday.
Wante is also the director of the Law Development Centre which administers the diploma in Legal practice.
The other two members were Moses Adriko and Agaba Maguru. When the hearing of the case started in 2004, the lawyer denied the charges. He allegedly failed to attend any of the subsequent sessions, despite receiving hearing notices.
Earlier, Janyare, a court bailiff, had told the committee that in 2001 he obtained a warrant of attachment and sale of a bus belonging to Horizon Coaches following the conclusion of a court case between Pan African Insurance Company and the bus company.
Janyare said armed men, under the orders of Nangumya, bundled him into a car and took him to where the attached bus had been parked. After inflicting bodily harm on him, they forcefully disarmed the private guards, who had been hired to guard the bus, and took the vehicle.
According to Janyare, he was detained at an office on Bombo Road in Kampala between 7:00 and 10:00pm that night before he was transferred to Kampala Central Police Station, where he was charged with theft of the bus.
However, he was released the next day on Police bond following the intervention of the lawyer for the Pan-African Insurance Company.
THE disciplinary committee of the Uganda Law Council has suspended a Kampala advocate, Geoffrey Nangumya, for six months for gross professional misconduct.
Nangumya is accused of illegally repossessing a bus which had been confiscated by court. In the process, he allegedly assaulted Allen Janyare, the complainant. The committee also ordered Nangumya to pay sh10m with interest as damages to the complainant for the mental torture he suffered, plus sh1m as costs of the case.
“Verbal threats, physical violence and abduction of the complainant orchestrated by the lawyer, which conduct is corroborated by evidence on record, we cannot but hold that the defendant’s actions were highhanded and unbecoming of an advocate and, besides being repugnant, were criminal as well,†the three man committee, headed by Elijah Wante, said on Friday.
Wante is also the director of the Law Development Centre which administers the diploma in Legal practice.
The other two members were Moses Adriko and Agaba Maguru. When the hearing of the case started in 2004, the lawyer denied the charges. He allegedly failed to attend any of the subsequent sessions, despite receiving hearing notices.
Earlier, Janyare, a court bailiff, had told the committee that in 2001 he obtained a warrant of attachment and sale of a bus belonging to Horizon Coaches following the conclusion of a court case between Pan African Insurance Company and the bus company.
Janyare said armed men, under the orders of Nangumya, bundled him into a car and took him to where the attached bus had been parked. After inflicting bodily harm on him, they forcefully disarmed the private guards, who had been hired to guard the bus, and took the vehicle.
According to Janyare, he was detained at an office on Bombo Road in Kampala between 7:00 and 10:00pm that night before he was transferred to Kampala Central Police Station, where he was charged with theft of the bus.
However, he was released the next day on Police bond following the intervention of the lawyer for the Pan-African Insurance Company.