Man arrested offering bribes, dealing in ‘not for sale’ goods

{Police in Huye District have arrested one Alex Mubirigi, a local businessman for allegedly buying and selling UNHCR goods that are meant not to be sold, and attempting to offer bribes as means to buy his way out of the illegal business.}

UNHCR is United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Mubirigi was arrested on May 22 by the Revenue Protection Unit (RPU), a Rwanda National Police (RNP) unit attached to Rwanda Revenue Authority to fight fraud and smuggling, at he was found repackaging the UNHCR labeled goods that include maize flour and Sosoma.

Sosoma is composite flour made out of mixed maize grains, soy beans and sorghum.

Chief Supt. Sam Bugingo, the commanding officer of RPU, said that when police officers on their routine operations found Mubirigi repackaging the UNHCR labeled foodstuff, he attempted to offer them a bribe of Rwf200, 000.

“Our Officers frequently conduct inspections to verify the authenticity of products on the market and whether they paid taxes; it is in this context that they found Mubirigi emptying UNHCR labeled sacks of SOSOMA and maize flour, and repackaging the goods in other sacks to cover up his unlawful business and in the due course, he attempted to bribe the officers when they asked him to produce supporting papers, so as to let him continue with his business, and he was arrested immediately,” said CSP Bugingo.

At the time of his arrest, the suspect was repackaging about 3650 kilogrammes of SOSOMA and 1700 kilogrammes of maize flour.

Although police is still investigating the exact source of the flour, the suspect admitted he “illegally acquired the products that aren’t for sale.”

“There are two things to consider; first, selling goods that are not supposed to be sold on the market and secondly, bribery or corruption, which is a serious crime let alone in Rwanda National Police, which cannot be tolerated,” CSP Bugingo said.

Bribery is a crime that attracts a jail sentence of up to seven years and a fine of up to 10 times the amount of money that was offered in bribes.