By Mulengera Reporters
Upon being arrested, having been caught red handed extorting money from refugees seeking registration and documentation services at the OPM’s Sir Apollo Kaggwa Road-based offices, an Eritrean man refused to cooperate with a contingent of security officers who led by the DPC Old Kampala.
Asked to identify himself and reveal his names, the man pretended to be dumb and unable to talk. He didn’t have any identification documents on him though eyewitnesses who operate small businesses around identified him as someone who frequently comes around the refugee management department premises.
His luck ran out on Monday when a group of 25 Eritrean refugees from whom money had allegedly been taken stormed the OPM refugee department offices ranting. They required different services and complained of their refugee registration IDs being delayed yet between $50 and $100 had been taken from each one of them, ostensibly to expedite the documents’ issuance. Others paid in return for help to quickly get issued with asylum seeker certificates and other related documentation services all of which the GoU/OPM offers free of charge.
It was some of the victims who aided the security attached to the refugee department in arresting the alleged fraudster. He allegedly would get money from his victims while claiming to work with some insiders who he couldn’t name upon being arrested and handcuffed.
Mr. Patrick Okello, who is the OPM Commissioner in Charge of Refugees and is also head of department, explained to reporters that similar arrests have previously been made and suspects handed over to Police only for them to end up being disappointed because such cases rarely get prosecuted to conclusion through the criminal justice system. He commended the incumbent Old Kampala Police DPC for the promptness with which he responded. He prayed that the latest suspect gets fully prosecuted so as to serve as a deterrent. More can be seen in this video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IS4YMr3sQY&pp=0gcJCVELAYcqIYzv.
After lots of probing from journalists, the suspect, who kept denying any wrongdoing while refusing to explain the source of the Shs900,000 he was caught with, reluctantly declared that his name is PD Muhimba, an Eritrean refugee in Uganda. His alleged victims, mostly young women and girls who are fellow Eritreans, insisted that the said monies had been extorted from them and they registered their readiness to aid police investigations into the matter.
Commissioner Patrick Okello explained that refugees continue to be sensitized and encouraged to directly report such extortionist attempts directly to his office so that more perpetrators can be apprehended so that the vice is eliminated once and for all. There are also phone numbers through which such fraudulent activities can be reported to the authorities so that all refugee registration and documentation-related services can be accessed by all free of charge, as was intended by the GoU.
The suspect (whose apprehension caused dramatic scenes at the OPM/refugee department premises for much of Monday afternoon) was led away in a drone to the nearby Old Kampala Police Division premises to be subjected to further interrogation. He spoke of other people involved who he will have no option but to cooperate and disclose their identities to the Police to aid investigations, which he is duty bound to do. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
