The Director the Law Development Center (LDC) Frank Nigel Othembi and the academic Registrar Mr. Turyahikayo Evaristo have been dragged to Inspector General of Government (IGG) by a whistle blower.
In a letter dated 14th November 2019, the duo are accused of gross abuse of office relating from aiding some staff members to extort money from students at the much esteemed institution.
“You have been collecting money in the forged failures by students and this was at its highest in the 2016-2018 where a number of students were exchanged upon payment of huge sums of money ranging between 1- 20 millions depending on the number of subjects failed and the score to be exchanged.” The letter reads adding that this can be proved by the scripts and recorded marks in their computer systems, results register book and the quality of work in different answer scripts vis a vis the marks given.
The four paged documents further reveals that the duo use their relationship with students to sneak them to the lists of those who passes courses and graduation lists.
Our efforts to reach the accused were futile as their known numbers were not going through.
It should be noted that tertiary institutions have for years been on the spot of the same related offenses with the most common being Makerere University.
This last week prompted the Parliament to grant permission and more time to the Committee on Education to complete investigations into allegations of sexual violence by security forces on Makerere University students.
The Vice Chairperson of the Committee, Hon. John Twesigye
Ntamuhiira, told Parliament on Wednesday, 27 November 2019 that they had failed
to talk to the victims of the alleged violence during the earlier given time.
“We discovered that there is more than meets the eye
considering the issues of Makerere and that the students who were sexually
abused could not show up for the meetings,” Ntamuhiira said during the sitting
chaired by Speaker, Rebecca Kadaga.
Ntamuhiira said that the committee has made a final schedule
of the meeting and will be able to exhaustively handle the matter and report to
Parliament by December10, 2019.
Following the recent students strike over the 15 percent
increment in tuition fees at the country’s oldest university, it was claimed that
security forces deployed there had sexually harassed students.
Parliament asked its Committee on Education and Sports to
among others investigate the allegations and the alleged mismanagement at the
university. The resolution followed a motion moved by the Shadow Minister of
Education, Hon. Mathias Mpuuga. The Committee was scheduled to report back to
the plenary by 13 November 2019.
The Committee held a number of meetings with the students and
the management, which defended the fees increment saying that it would help in
improving the facilities at the University. However, the students said they
were not consulted on the matter and even after the increment there was no
visible difference in the state of facilities at the institution.
The students also claimed that some of their fellow students
had been brutally beaten and sexually abused by the security forces.
