By Stephen Kalema
Drama ensued Wednesday morning, with legislators sitting on the Parliamentary Committee on Statutory Authority and State Enterprises (Cosase), threatening to arrest Justine Bagyenda’s former bodyguard, Juliet Ariokot.
Bagyenda, a former executive director Bank of Uganda in charge of supervision, was fired in February.
Ariokot, was on Tuesday ordered to appear before Cosase to answer queries that she had helped her then boss, together with two others, smuggle out three sacks of classified information on March 13.
The other two Bagyenda aides are Beatrice Kyambadde, a security assistant and Charles Omoro, Bagyenda’s driver.
On Tuesday, the central bank’s head of security, Milton Opio had told the committee that CCTV cameras had captured Ariokot carrying suspicious bags out of the facility in total breach of the Bank’s security.
However, when Ariokot arrived at Parliament on Wednesday morning, she refused to enter the interrogation room, protesting that Parliament has no powers to summon her.
However, her colleagues Kyambadde and Omoro, with whom she was summoned entered.
This forced committee chairperson Abdu Katuntu to order the Parliamentary police to hunt for her and bring her to the committee for interrogation.
“If her colleagues respected the summons and came in earlier before the committee started, then who is her?” Katuntu asked.
When she was finally bundled into the interrogation room, Ariokot refused to take an oath before testifying but instead started an uncalled for exchange with Katuntu.
On top of that, Ariokot demanded that Cosase gives her a letter from Inspector General of Police, Martin Okoth Ochola authorising her interrogation.
“I am not supposed to answer anything before this committee neither in any court before I get a permission from my boss, the IGP. If not that I, will not take an oath,” said Ariokot.
Katuntu said: “Whether you like it or not, you must appear before this committee and you must take the oath now. The reason why we summoned you is that you were captured on CCTV carrying bags which did not go through the security system. My team went and viewed those images so we are going to have the conversation with you about your actions. You are going to tell the Committee what happened, why you bypassed the security system, if you know the contents of the bags and what did you carry out?”
Katuntu added: “Your standing orders are subject to the Constitution. Which is the superior law on this land. If you read the Constitution, I refer you to article 90, your standing orders of IGP are inferior. If anybody ever charges you this Committee takes full responsibility.”
Ariokot again told the committee that she won’t take an oath in absence of Bagyenda, which Katuntu termed as ‘time wasting’ and ordered her to take the oath lest she gets arrested for contempt of Parliamentary rules.
She relented and took the oath.
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