By Mulengera Reporters
During his plea-taking session inside the Makindye-based Utilities Court last week, Sadiq Nsibaminya, a 25-year-old Mukonjo, partially admitted to participating in the vandalism and theft of telecom cables belonging to American Tower Corporation (ATC).
The prosecution lawyers from the mandated Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) stated that besides the cables, a telecom radio remote unit, still belonging to the same complainant ATC, was targeted during the 7th March raid on the telecom tower site located in Kisinje village Kibalinga Sub County, Kibale district.
Besides vandalism and theft, Nsibaminya, who kept innocently smiling throughout the court session, was also charged with criminal tresspass onto the ATC property. This Kibale site is just one of the many, as ATC has more than 5,000 such telecom mast sites across Uganda.
Nsibaminya admitted taking away the things but defended himself on grounds that he took them away thinking they were unwanted since he allegedly found them scattered on the ground and not intact. That he wanted to get school fees and other provisions for his children. He said he believes that what he picked and carried away was mere scrap and nothing of any value to ATC.
Speaking on behalf of prosecution, Counsel Kagawa told Court that investigations were ongoing, including efforts to apprehend the scrap dealer to whom Nsibaminya allegedly sold the stolen items; prompting the Magistrate to remand him up to Wednesday 1st April, which will be a Wednesday. The accused person was informed of his right to apply for bail but he couldn’t make much progress along that path because he didn’t readily have people to stand surety for him.
Vandalism targeting telecom equipment isn’t only very costly to the communications industry but has also lately been very rampant and generally on the increase. In the last 12 months, state prosecutors from UCC have secured conviction and custodial sentencing against many such offenders, targeting such telecom institutions across the country.
And gratefully, many such accused persons ended up being convicted by the Makindye Chief Magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu on their own plea of guilty after realizing that they stood no chance of winning the cases, after UCC lawyers producing compeling evidence irretrievably implicating them. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
