By Spy Uganda
Free comedy ensued in Masaka Chief Magistrates court on Tuesday, after the Chief Magistrate failed to find the Charge Sheet which bears the cases for which Lwemiyaga county Member of Parliament Theodore Ssekikubo was arrested last month.
After looking for the charge sheet in vain, the Chief Magistrate Deogratious Ssejemba was left with no option but to adjourn the case to April 7 when hearing is expected to commence.
Ssekikubo was arrested on January 10, charged with attempted murder and remanded to Masaka Prison until January 14, when he returned to court and was granted bail, before his case being adjourned to February 18, 2020.
He is alleged to have committed the case in 2010 during the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) Party primaries.
The prosecution alleges that Ssekikubo shot Habibu Nsamba, a security operative, during the hotly contested NRM party primaries where Ssekikubo defeated his rival Patrick Nkalubo.
However, Ssekikubo’s lawyers led by MP Medard Lubega Ssegona, in their submissions on Tuesday, prayed to the court to dismiss the case, arguing that the state seems to have lost interest in the matter.
“The state has failed to make disclosure of their case despite repeated pleas to them, which has made it hard for us to prepare for the case,” he said.
But the state prosecutor Amina Akasa asked the court for more time to enable them to obtain the charge sheet from the police.
“Our efforts to acquire the charge sheet have not yielded anything yet and this has barred us from making disclosure of the case. But we promise we can make partial disclosure before the close of business today [Tuesday],” Akasa said.
Ssekikubo also faces another charge of forcefully entering Lwemiyaga cattle market and selling cows in a quarantined area, following the outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Sembabule District.
However, the case was also referred to the same date (April 7) after State Attorney Akasa told the court that prosecution intends to amend the charge sheet.
She, however, declined to tell the court the changes the state plans to make in the charge sheet.
“We need more time to get our witnesses ready and to enable us to tender amended charge sheet to court,” Akasa told the Chief Magistrate.
Later after the adjournment, Ssekikubo told the media that the cases preferred against him are premised on trumped-up charges and will be dismissed like it was done in 2010 when the state failed to adduce incriminating evidence against him.
He said that “The charges are aimed at distracting me from doing my work as a legislator and fighting for interests of poor people. I ask the government not to abuse the due process of the law. If they have the evidence against me, let them bring it up.”
