Bamugemereire Probe Issues Third CriminalSsummons After Lands Minister Amongi Refuses to Show Up
The Commission of inquiry into land matters has issued fresh criminal summons against the minister for lands,Betty Amongi.
Amongi was scheduled to appear before the commission on Thursday but she failed to turn up prompting the probe team headed by lady justice Catherine Bamugemereire to summon her for the third time.
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“Whereas you were earlier summoned to appear before the Commission of inquiry appointed by the president, you failed to attend without a reasonable explanation,” wrote Dr.Douglas Singiza in the fresh criminal summons dated May 3 to the lands minister.
“You are hereby commanded by the commission to appear before it on the 7th day of May to record your statement and thereafter give testimony at the land commission offices.”
According to the commission, Amongi will be quizzed about her role as the minister for lands in handling of the land fund and handling of disputes related to a property on plot 29 along Acacia Avenue in Kololo.
The minister is accused of failure to manage the land fund earmarked to buy out absentee Baganda landlord in Bunyoro but ended up in the hands of some individuals.
It is alleged that the then chief accountant of the Uganda Land Commission Martin Ssentongo made ghost payments as well as under paying land beneficiaries over land in Bunyoro.
Amongi is also accused by Tosh Hanibal Patel, the grandson of Uganda’s first speaker of parliament Hanibal Patel of using her position to forge a parallel land title on Plot 29, Acacia Avenue, a property owned by the Patel family.
The minister is also accused of intimidation, threatening violence and fraud.
Amongi who was supposed to attend the commission on April 20th but she wrote to them saying she would be able to come a week later on April 26, a date on which she again failed to turn up.
On Thursday she was again supposed to appear but she was a no show prompting the Justice Bamugemereire chaired commission to issue criminal summons against the minister.
She has however been warned that she risks committing an offence for failure to turn up to the commission without a sufficient reason.
