By Mulengera Reporters
At the prompting of CID Headquarters at Kibuli, ASP Hassan Kalengat, who heads the CID department at Luwero Police station, has commenced criminal investigations aimed at the sanctioning of Equity Bank MD Sam Kirubi and Executive Director Anthony Kituuka. The duo is accused of economically or financially depriving Luwero LC5 Chairman Ronald Ndawula (of NRM) in favor of NUP Coordinator Denis Sekabira Kisoboka who is also Kyagulanyi’s candidate for the Katikamu North MP Seat.
The background to the story is briefly as follows: Ndawula owns Everest Schools Ltd which has banked with Equity Bank since 2017. Desire to expand by putting up new buildings prompted the school to take a loan from the Bank which they smoothly serviced until the March 2020 lockdown which forced academic institutions to close ass was specifically directed by the President. The school found difficulties servicing the loan as frequently as was required by the bank. Ndawula and other school directors referred to the President’s directive requiring banks to relax the repayment terms for the schools since they had become distressed like all the other businesses due to the inevitable closure the COVID19 lockdown resulted into.
In his long complaint to Akullo, authored by his lawyers of M/S Mpagi Sunday & Co Advocates, Ndawula informs the CID Director that the bank advertised his school in the newspapers. And that when nobody showed interest in buying it due to prevailing economic hardships in the country, the bank reached some curious understanding which resulted into Denis Sekabira becoming the new school owner. Ndawula insists that lots of fraud was committed in the process which is the reason CID commenced investigations into the entire circumstances of the sale.
Ndawula disputes the Simbamanyo-like procedure through which his school was sold off. That the sale wasn’t preceded by a valuation report. And that CL Risk Management Services’ Christopher Lumala, who the bank contracted to conduct the sale to Sekabira on its behalf, isn’t a registered or licensed auctioneer or court bailiff. He references on the letter Chief Registrar of Courts Sarah Langa Siu wrote clearly stating the man wasn’t authorized to conduct such sale of foreclosed property. That actually there was even no auction at all. Ndawula, who has also since challenged the bank’s actions in civil courts of law, believes that all this was irregular and renders the subsequent conveyancing over his land a nullity.
As someone who ultimately benefited from this sham process, Ndawula wants Sekabira to be individually punished besides the two Equity Bank topmost management bosses. That the circumstances under which the buyer/purchaser’s names changed from “Sekabira Denis” to “Sekabira Denes,” at a time the entire transaction and transfer was beginning to be challenged, was curious and suspect. Writing on behalf of NIRA, Daphine Musama evidenced the impugned change of name as authenticate, something Ndawula insists was irregular and must be inquired in by the CID which is already investigating Sekabira and the bank under LUW/CRB/613/2020 coordinated from Luwero Police Station’s CID department. ASP Hassan Kalengat, who heads CID Luwero Police Station, says under the above case file reference, the trio of Kirubi, Kituuka and Sekabira is being investigated for possible fraud and uttering false documents.
On behalf of Equity Bank, legal manager Denis Kyewalabye and legal officer Arocha Joseph have since written to the Luwero CID branch volunteering some of the documents they believe can aid the ongoing criminal investigations against their MD and ED. The documents surrendered so far include the sale agreement, notice of sale, newspaper advert, the relevant court decisions and copy of the valuation report whose authenticity Ndawula and other Everest School directors dispute.
The two bank top executives have continued to be summoned by CID to appear in person and explain themselves against criminal allegations relating to fraud and uttering false documents all aimed at depriving Ndawula of his property while enriching NUP’s Sekabira. In fact, Ndawula’s lawyers have insisted on lifting the veil of incorporation so that the two bank officials can be sanctioned personally as opposed to hiding behind the veil of incorporation which gives them a distinct identity different from the bank or company on whose behalf they are presumed to have acted or omitted to act.
The school directors claim that the fact that only days after purporting to buy the school Denis Sekabira was facilitated to mortgage it back to the same Equity Bank a security in return for a Shs2.7bn loan is indicative of some improper conduct on part of the two bank executives. That ironically, at the time Sekabira purported to use the school as security to access fresh borrowing, the same hadn’t yet legally been transferred to him as the new owner following the disputed sale of the same by Christopher Lumala acting on behalf of the bank.
The fact that Ndawula has demanded that the subsequent mortgage of Shs2.7bn advanced to Sekabira should be inquired into to establish the extent to which it should be interpreted as financial support to the PP/NUP political movement implies the two top bank executives could find themselves in much deeper political trouble than they might currently think. Ndawula’s political godfathers are trying to make a case to Gen Museveni’s State House that this (Shs2.7bn) is money Sekabira could potentially expend on anti-Museveni political activities to try as much as possible to portray key Equity Bank officials as being sympathetic to the anti-regime political agenda which Sekabira, a former NRM Nakaseke South MP flag bearer in 2016, represents. (For comments on this story, call, text or whatsapp us on 0705579994, 0779411734, 0200900416 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).