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Sejusa lawyers plot raid on Bank of Uganda
Sejusa aka David Tinyefuza
A fortnight ago, Gen David Sejusa.
The money had been deposited on account number 1032200321411 in Equity Bank’s Oasis Mall branch belonging to Makman Logistics Ltd owned by Gen. David Sejusa’s lawyers.
The money had been wired by a China Bank branch towards Makman when the Financial Intelligence Authority of Uganda (FIA) acting on behalf of the government of Uganda moved in and attached the account.
We learned that Makman is helping a Chinese construction firm, CGCOC Group Limited to obtain a tender for the construction of the Tororo-Lira-Kamdani road and that of Soroti-Dokoto-Lira and the payment was a deposit in respect of that work.
The latest news coming through now has it that the lawyers for Makman have initiated legal moves to attach Equity Bank’s requisite capital held at Bank of Uganda as well as the account belonging to the FIA also held at the central bank.
Makman is also seeking to have the managing director of Equity Bank, Samuel Kiruli as well as the boss of FIA, Sydney Asubo arrested and jailed over the frozen funds.
Makman lawyers, Mushabe, Munungu and company advocates, who are also lawyers for Gen Sejusa in entirely different matters, accuse Kiruli and Asubo of disobeying a court order that require the duo to unconditionally release the funds in issue.
We understand that Justice Christopher Madrama Izama of the commercial division of the High division is the one who issued the foregoing order on July 13.
“It is agreed that the account number 1032200321411 in the names of the first applicant (read Makman) be unfrozen immediately by the first respondent (read Equity bank), the court’s judgment reads in part.
The parties had by the way entered a gentleman’s agreement in which Equity bank undertook to unfreeze the account to which FIA assented when Justice Madrama reduced the same agreement into a court document.
The parties agreed, “The said USD350, 000 which was credited to the first applicant’s (Makman) account held at Equity bank at Oasis Mall branch in Kampala are proceeds of the contractual relationship between the parties, namely the second applicant (Joel Muyanja) and CGCOC Group Company Limited (that is payment for services provided for CGCOC, by virtue of a contract executed on June 20, 2016.”
To which FIA assented, “The second respondent (FIA) being a regulatory organization having received a power of attorney from the second applicant (read Joel Muyanja) authorizing him to act for and on behalf of Makman is satisfied with the documentation presented to absolve the transaction of any suspicion.”
Contrary to the concessions reached by the parties above, we now know that Makman’s lawyers have since gone back to court, complaining how Equity Bank reneged on its word.
“That the first applicant (read Makman) withdrew some funds from the said account on July 14th, 15th and 15th, 2016, but when he tried to withdraw some more money on Sunday 17, 2016, he was told that the account had been frozen again,” Joel Muyanja, the operations manager of Makman, grumbles in an affidavit accompanying the fresh application to court.
It’s for such supposed breaches on part of the bank and FIA that Makman has returned to court, asking Justice Madrama to hold the two institutions and their leaders in contempt of court.
Makman wants court to make six orders. The first one is about holding Equity bank and its MD, Samuel Kiruli as well as the boss of FIA, Sydney Asubo in contempt of the court order that required them to release the funds unconditionally.
The second one seeks an order to attach the bank accounts of Equity and that of FIA held at Bank of Uganda. The third one is in respect of committing Kiruli and Asubo to the civil prison for what Makman calls disobedience of lawful orders.
The fourth seeks to have the bank, FIA as well as their bosses to pay general and punitive damages for “disobedience of lawful orders and the fifth seeks court to make any other orders as may appear just and convenient in the circumstances while the last is about the respondents meeting costs of the instant application.
The application is accompanied with a written statement in which Makman’s Operations manager, Joel Muyanja reminds court how the CGCOC’s Operation’s project manager Aksay Melih and the company’s country director,, Chen Gang proved that his( Muyanja’s) employers did work for them and that they (CGCOC) made a deposit of USD350, 000 to their ( Makman’s) account held in Equity bank.
Muyanja reminds court how the bank and FIA agreed that the payment was actually meant for Makman and that it accrued from lawful work rendered to CGCOC, before accepting to release it unconditionally and how the two have since gone back on their word.
The court’s deputy registrar Thaddeus Opisen has since certified the instant applicant as urgent, agreeing to hear the same in the court’s ongoing court’s vacation, on August 5.
The respondents had not filed responses by Wednesday this week.
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