Police release photos of 'ghost' pensioners

 Innocent Anguyo

KAMPALA - The Police has released 945 images of suspected ghost pensioners who were paid sh63b between July and September 2011.

Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba released the images Tuesday afternoon at a news conference held at the Central Police Station in the capital, Kampala.

Preliminary investigations carried out by the Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Directorate (CIID) had unearthed 1,018 ghost pensioners, Nabakooba revealed.

She noted that some of the images of the ghost pensioners were duplicated.

“The photos of some people appeared more than once to make them look as if they were different people.” Nabakooba said.

  She also revealed that all the ghost pensioners held accounts at Cairo International Bank in Kampala.

“Efforts to trace these people proved futile as the telephone numbers on their account-opening forms were either non-existent or unavailable."

Police are investigating a scam where sh63b was paid to about 1,000 ghost beneficiaries using accounts opened in Cairo International Bank’s head office.