The Police Regional Criminal Investigations Department in West Nile is investigating three security officials for allegedly soliciting and receiving a bribe worth 36 million Shillings from a Congolese gold dealer.
The accused include Francis Odongo, an operative working with the External Security Organisation (ESO), James Opolot, a crime Intelligence Officer and Felix Ezangu, the border internal security officer all attached to Vurra customs border point along the Uganda-DR Congo border in Arua district.
Preliminary reports indicate that the accused, aided the entry of a yet-to-be-identified Congolese gold dealer to evade the Uganda Revenue Authority protocol at the border post on March 24, 2023. The accused reportedly intercepted the businessman before crossing the border, solicited a bribe of 10,000 US Dollars and drove him to Arua city to sell his pieces of gold.
A security official who preferred anonymity told this publication that the accused persons shared the bribe they got from the gold dealer on March 25, 2023, from Devine Touch Hotel, a few meters from the Vurra Customs border post in Arua district.
Arua Resident District Commissioner Godfrey Okiswa says that the matter came to the limelight when the accused officials disagreed on how to share their loot.
Meanwhile, Vurra Sub-county chairperson Joel Pariyo explains that cases of extortion by security operatives are rampant at the border and appealed to the district security committee to intervene. The accused persons declined to speak to the media.
Gold exports surpassed all traditional agricultural exports like coffee, tea, cotton and fish in 2019. The Economy Performance report released by the ministry of Finance mid- January shows that Uganda earned $1.36 billion from gold exports in 2019. But questions abound regarding the source of this mass gold exports
