By Our Reporter
NATIONAL
The Minister of State for Planning Amos Lugoloobi was arrested yesterday, 14th April, 2023 after the Director of Public Prosecutions sanctioned criminal charges against him.
By last night, the Minister was still being held at Kira Division Police station pending production at the Anti-Corruption Court on Monday, 17th April, 2023.
According to a brief police statement, Lugoloobi’s arrest follows the ongoing investigations into the alleged theft and diversion of Iron sheets meant for the Karamoja region.
“The office of the DPP has sanctioned criminal charges against Hon. Amos Lugolobi, the Minister of State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development. As a result, he has been arrested and detained at Kira Division, pending court,” the statement reads.
Lugoloobi’s arrest happened just hours after he returned 600 iron sheets to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) stores in Namanve.
WHY LUGOLOOBI
Lugoloobi’s arrest has not come as a surprise considering the strongly worded letter President Museveni wrote to the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister, Robinnah Nabbanja dated 3rd April, 2023.
In that letter, President Museveni said Ministers who had consciously received the iron sheets and put them to personal use are thieves.
“Those who took the mabaati for personal use. This is not just a political mistake, it is Theft,” Museveni wrote directing that apart from returning the mabaati or the monetary value, they should face the law.
Lugoloobi unfortunately falls in this category of ministers having used the iron sheets to construct a goats’ shelter at his village home in Misanga village, Misanga Parish in Kayunga’s Bbaale Sub County.
The office of the DPP has this evidence that the Minister put the iron sheets to personal use, and going by the Presidential directive, he is culpabale. The DPP also has evidence that he received the iron sheets by the mere fact that he returned 600 iron sheets to OPM stores at Namanve yesterday 14th April, 2023.
Police and other investigating agencies must be ploughing through such evidence as that adduced against Lugoloobi to have other Ministers arrested.
