{UAH} Man wins court case, duped into fake appeal-this is museveni-Odoki`s judiciary!!!

Man wins court case, duped into fake appeal

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By CHRIS OBORE

Posted  Saturday, October 5  2013 at  01:00

IN SUMMARY

For his lack of knowledge on court processes, Mr Oonyu was tricked into appealing against a case he had won.

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Kampala

Normally when you win a case in court, the accused pays you. Ironically, one man who won a case in Pallisa District is yet to prove how true this norm is.

Mr David Oonyu won a land case and the Pallisa Magistrate's Court was to award him costs payable by the accused. But for his little knowledge of the court process, Mr Oonyu was duped that he had lost the case and was advised to appeal to the Chief Magistrate's Court in Mbale for review of the lower court's decision.

Armed with this false advice, apparently from an agent of the accused who had lost the case, Mr Oonyu filed his case with Mbale Chief Magistrate's Court on case No. 04 of 2012 seeking intervention of the higher court.

This marked the beginning of Mr Oonyu's endless trips from Pallisa to Mbale for the hearing of his purported appeal case. On each trip, sources in Mbale Chief Magistrate's Court said, Mr Oonyu would pay some fee to court officials to tell him the hearing date for his appeal.

The officials would tell him that the Court Registrar had not yet fixed his case for hearing but that "soon, it will be up for hearing". However, someone within the court, alerted him that he had actually won the case and would have received his compensation had the file remained in Pallisa. 
Mr Oonyu demanded retrieval of his file from Mbale court to refer his case back to Pallisa. But he could not access the file again.

Each time he asked the clerk who handled his file, he would be told to "come back later when the Registrar is not busy". His next visit to the court would be met with a similar story but with an additional "facilitation" fee.

When the matter reached deputy Registrar Muse Musimbi's desk, he demanded to see the file and advise accordingly. However, he too, could not access it. He demanded to know from Mr Oonyu the official he (Mr Oonyu) had been dealing with.

Mr Oonyu reportedly revealed how he had been paying out money to junior court officials who purportedly promised to handle his matter. The furious Mr Musimbi reportedly entered the Registry and asked all the staff to produce the file or face his wrath. The search commenced but for two weeks, it could not yield anything.

Judiciary publicist Erias Kisawuzi described the incident as serious as it impacts on the integrity and safety of judicial documents.

cobore@ug.nationmedia.com