{A 29-year old man is seeking for compensation after spending four years in jail, in Luzira prison, on wrong charges of aggravated robbery.}
George Okello, a former office messenger at Uni Movers and Logistics ltd, was acquitted by the High Court judge, Lameck Nsubuga Mukasa, after finding no evidence pinning him to the crime.
In his release order, in October 16, 2015, the Judge set Okello free and ordered for his immediate release from prison.
In an interview with the New Vision, Okello said that though he has been set free, he still has nowhere to go to and no one to seek help from since his wife and son abandoned him, the very moment he was arrested.
While narrating his side story, he said that he got employed by the transport company in 2007 and worked for four years, until 2011 when the robbers broke into the premises and made away with huge sums of money.
“I remember vividly that morning; I was in the office going about my duties when robbers broke into the company premises and ran away with money. Not wanting my bosses to blame me for failing to do something, I run after them.
The chase was long, I knew the risks but held on until I caught up with them, fought and regained the bag of money,” he said.
Okello, who still has the scars of the wounds he incurred during the struggle, said that after rescuing the money, he went back to the company, kept it and then rushed to Police to report the incident. But on reaching there, he was instead detained.
“I called my bosses to come to my rescue but they instead communicated to the police who took me to the company and asked to show them where the money was. I showed them and after retrieving the money, the police tortured me, pulled my genitals and bruised them,” he said.
After the torture, he was taken to Kira police station where he was detained for two weeks before being transferred to Luzira prison without telling him what his crime was. He got to know about it in court when he was asked to take plea.
Okello, who is currently staying with his ailing in-laws, is seeking for help from his former bosses and well-wishers to help him stand on his feet again.
“I have lost everything in life, am now physically incapacitated by the prison conditions and the police torture, and I have been left with a constant back pain. I request the company’s director to assist me with anything or at least let them compensate me for the loss I have suffered,” he said.
The case
In 2011, Okello, Christopher Bulya and Zubaire Nuwasiima were arrested under allegations of theft. They were arraigned before court and charged with aggravated robbery.
They were accused of stealing sh2m, USD 7,685(around sh26, 382,605) and a Nokia phone from a one Florence Kalungi the company’s accountant. They were also accused of threatening Kalungi with a pistol and knife.
The prosecution case was that two men entered the office premises when Okello had just left and forced Kalungi to lead them to where the money was kept. After showing them, they stuffed the money in a black bag, snatched her phone and run a way.
Before they could go far, Okello resurfaced chased after them and retrieved the bag of money. However, when she opened the bag, the dollars were missing, prompting her to report to police.
Meanwhile the two men were arrested by boda boda men together with Okello and took them to Ntinda police station where they implicated him in the robbery, as the master planner.
However, the prosecution failed to provide enough evidence to pin Okello to the crime but instead pinned his co accused.
What the director says
Henry Kasoma, the company director when contacted said that the prosecution evidence was tampered with and that is why Okello was acquitted.
“That man is lucky that the police officer who arrested him banked the exhibitor and messed with the evidence. He stole our money and he just survived death by a whisker. He arranged thieves to come and steal the company, but the deal went bad,” he said.
“We feel cheated that he is walking free yet the people he stole the money with are in prison. The day he stole the money, it was our accountant on duty, she is still with us you can ask her,” he added.
Source:The New Vision:[Man seeks compensation after four years in jail->http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/677092-man-seeks-compensation-after-four-years-in-jail.html]
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