By Mulengera Reporters
For much of this year, a group of state prosecutors led by Uganda Communications Commission (UCC)’s Head Legal Affairs Dr. Abdul Salaam Waiswa have spent months prosecuting several violators of the relevant telecommunications sector laws and regulations.
This has been happening at the Makindye-based Utilities Standards & Wildlife Court headed by Chief Magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu. Many perpetrators of the impugned offences have had killer witnesses appear to give evidence corroborating the prosecution or state’s case against them.
Ernest Edengel, a 26-year-old primary school teacher, has been one of the accused persons who have had to several times appear before Kamasanyu to be prosecuted by the UCC lawyers. For years, the stone-faced Edengel allegedly conned hundreds of people or victims in the Eastern Uganda district of Pallisa whereby he would lure them into sending money on his phone holding himself out to be area MP Francis Mukula, who ostensibly would be connecting with Kampala-based decision makers at Education and Health Service Commissions to get for especially teachers and medics lucrative permanent & pensionable employment on the government payroll at well-paying public schools and hospitals across the country.
Evidence tendered before Kamasanyu by several witnesses including police officers, and ordinary Ugandans including a victim who had to testify via zoom from Europe where he relocated to after being conned, were duped to, on average, part with between Shs800,000 and Shs1.5m.
It was a racket Edengel allegedly coordinated for years as was previously documented in our earlier story referenced hereunder https://mulengeranews.com/primary-school-teacher-cons-millions-in-honorable-mukulas-name-sells-kiwaani-jobs-to-hundreds-of-pallisa-residents-as-mp-demands-maximum-sentencing/. Edengel’s luck ran out months ago when a group of phone tracking security experts from UCC and Uganda Police Force raided the Luwero school where he was hiding and harvested him like a grass hopper.
He was subsequently arraigned before the Makindye Court where Hon Francis Mukula, in whose name he conned people of their hard-earned money and thereby negatively impacting his re-election chances in Pallisa, had the opportunity to appear before the Magistrate to give his killer evidence.
EDENGEL CRACKS:
Upon being overwhelmed by the evidence the state witnesses have been giving for much of this year, Edengel (who the Magistrate accorded chance to ruthlessly cross-examine prosecution witnesses) recently cracked and indicated to the Court he wanted to plead guilty in a plea-bargaining deal he believes can result into him getting lighter sentencing as opposed to the maximum sentence of roughly 5 years in prison.
Recently UCC lawyers reported to the Magistrate in open Court that the talks had gone well except that a few glitches cropped up when Edengel made unreasonable demands-otherwise the spirit to talk and resolve the entire case through plea-bargaining remains. Waiswa indicated to the Magistrate that the door remains open because even UCC, as a regulator, has no interest in seeing such a young man (under 30) languishing in prison and being on trial for an eternity.
Gladys Kamasanyu was appalled to hear from UCC lawyers that Edengel had demanded to be set free so that he returns home and resumes working in order to raise the money to re-imburse and restore victims of his fraudulent activities, which saw him dupe his victims into sending cash via a phone number that had criminally been registered and maintained in Hon Francis Mukula’s name.
“He had originally put us in touch with his relatives who were supposed to organize and avail the money [predictably in millions] to be used to compensate the victims but for sometime now, we haven’t been able to hear from those relatives. Their phones went off and we haven’t been able to hear from them yet the victims’ [restoration] is very important if the conclusion of this case is to ever lead to any justice. Mr. Edengel has failed to understand that this isn’t our case [as state prosecutors]; it’s for the victims. We have found it hard to accept his demands to be released so that he can go and work to get the money for victims’ compensation,” one of the state prosecutors from UCC told Gladys Kamasanyu during a recent Court session. The state prosecutors prefer that money to compensate the victims be availed before Edengel’s request to be let free so that he walks to freedom again can be considered.
Edengel, who has been in Luzira on remand for months, looks every inch a broken man and assured the Magistrate he has learnt his lesson, regrets his past acts and is more than ready to reform and live a crime-free life.
The Magistrate, friendly and courteous as always, responded by emphasizing to Edengel that his insistence to be released first so that he works and gets the money was most likely not going to ever be accepted because the prosecution lawyers rightly believe it would only make the deal totally unfair and amount to the state betraying victims. It’s expected the Magistrate will guide in a more comprehensive way at the subsequent Court session. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
