State Minister for Planning Amos Lugoloobi has opened up about the emotional and personal toll of the iron sheets scandal that saw him arrested, detained, and charged with corruption in 2023.
From losing his U.S. visa and bank accounts to facing public humiliation, the minister says the ordeal left him deeply depressed until the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) withdrew the case this week.
Lugoloobi was arrested in April 2023 over allegations related to the mismanagement of iron sheets that were meant for impoverished people in Karamoja. He reportedly used 400 iron sheets to roof an animal shed at his farm in Bbaale. He is the third minister to be charged over the iron sheets, with the first being the Minister for Karamoja, Mary Goretti Kitutu.
Lugoloobi was charged with two counts of dealing with suspect property, contrary to Section 21(a) of the Anti-Corruption Act.
Prosecution avers that between July 14, 2022, and February 28, 2023, at the Office of the Prime Minister’s stores in Namanve, Mukono District, he dealt with government property 400 pre-painted iron sheets marked Office of the Prime Minister having reason to believe that they were acquired as a result of loss of public property. The minister, however, pleaded not guilty to the two counts.
“I have terribly been depressed since 2023 when this matter came to court. I was detained in a small, smelly cell at Kira Police. I was sent to Luzira despite producing so many sureties. We did everything so that I wouldn’t go to Luzira, but eventually, I went there,” Lugoloobi said.
“There has been a lot of suffering in this matter. I thank God. He could have taken me to Luzira Prison to learn certain things that as a government policymaker, there are issues to handle in that prison, and I think we need to do something for those facilities,” he said.
“There are human rights issues in those places that we need to handle. I am happy that the state has decided to withdraw charges, and I am a free man.”
He said his opponents have used the case against him in campaigns, claiming he is a mabaati thief, yet the iron sheets were allocated to him by the same state that charged him.
He said he had received the iron sheets through the right procedures and that it might simply not have been a good day for him.
“I have lost a lot during this period. My American visa was withdrawn, yet I have to do a lot of annual work with UN agencies, and my children could not be allowed to go to the U.S.,” he said.
He added that he was forced to close his accounts in Stanbic Bank, his Visa cards were canceled, and he lost his MTN line due to the case except for Centenary Bank, which issued him a new Visa card.
“Stanbic and Absa banks threw me out, and I have been suffering a lot as a person, questioning why me. I thank everybody who has helped me,” he said.
