Poll petition costs: Arrest warrant issued for Tiperu

COURT

NORTHERN UGANDA - The High Court in Arua district issued an arrest warrant on Friday for former Arua Municipality parliamentary candidate Nusura Tiperu.

The directive is over failure to pay an accumulated election petition cost of over sh80m to Kassiano Wadri and the Electoral Commission.

The warrant dated December 5, 2019 is signed by the assistant deputy registrar of Arua High Court, Daniel Lubowa.

"Whereas Nusura Tiperu was ordered by this honourable court on [the] 15th day of March 2019 to pay costs of sh83,880,400 to the applicant, she has not obliged to," reads the warrant.

"This is to command you to arrest Nusura Tiperu, the judgment debtor, so that she pays the sum of sh83,880,400 together with the sum of costs of executing this process", it adds.

The order was issued through Dudu John Ogentho, the quick debt solution auctioneer bailiff of the court.

Tiperu petitioned the High Court after losing the August 2018 Arua Municipality by-election by over 1,500 votes. In the poll, she garnered 4,798 votes against eventual winner Wadri's 6,421 votes.

Wadri said they have been finding ways of realizing their costs.

"We have been struggling to ensure that we receive the money but in vain. Finally, the arrest warrant will help us achieve this," he said.

"If she has already received the money, but for one reason or the other she has not passed it to my lawyers, that is now the cross she has to carry."

Tiperu said she had instructed her lawyer to work on the payment schedule.