The State House Anticorruption Unit and CID are investigating a case where officers of the Police Mineral Protection Unit is accused of chasing an investor from a gold mine and taking it over for a year.
The officers are accused of abuse of office and frustrating Kisita Mining Company that had been licensed to operate the gold mine in Kasanda District.
Particulars of the complaint filed in the Anti-Corruption Unit in 2018, state that under the disguise of carrying out investigations, police officers barred the company team from accessing the gold mine and took over it as a scene of the crime.
“The police has instead granted access to the mine to more than 500 local miners led by Johnny Nsasirwe and others who have no shareholding or interest in Kisita Mining Company,” reads the complaint lodged by Horizon Energy, principal owners of the subsidiary Kisita Mining Company, based in the United Arab Emirates.
The complainants allege that the illegal miners appointed have not only destroyed the company’s machinery but are also actively extracting gold without paying taxes.
It is further alleged that the police officers had also resorted to threatening the management team with arrest on trumped-up charges.
“The issues, if true, are very grave and have the potential to ruin our country’s reputation as an attractive destination for foreign direct investment thereby affecting our economic growth,” said Lt Col Edith Nakalema, who heads the Anti-corruption Unit. She told the investigators meeting in Kampala on Wednesday to explore how the matter can be resolved.
Source: DM
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