ARU, DR Congo – Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have dropped charges of obtaining money by false pretence against two Ugandan bank officials.
Mubarak Asimwe and John Sempira, both working with Finance Trust Bank, Arua branch, were abducted last Thursday by Congolese soldiers and they were released the following day after the intervention of Ugandan officials.
The charges were dropped on Monday at Aru in DR Congo after a team of security personnel from Arua presented documents to their DRC counterparts about Atanasi Acidri, a client of Finance Trust Bank, who had handed over the bankers to the Congolese army.
Acidri, who had wanted to borrow money from the bank, told the two loan officers that he had land at the Uganda-DRC border that he would use as security. But when the officials went to inspect the land, he handed them over to DRC security officials who arrested them.
The Arua District Internal Security Officer (DISO), Mr Stephen Dravu, said the loan officers were taken before a magistrate and charged with obtaining money illegally from Acidri.
“When we reached there [Congo], the security team welcomed us and we discussed with them this issue but they told us Atanansi Acidri is a Congolese citizen, he is not a Ugandan. He is a man who does business from Congo up to Kampala [where] he loads things on vehicles…The Congolese authorities say they are going to prosecute him for having two citizenships. We pleaded with them to release these people, so we shall take them back on Monday [today],” Mr Dravu said.
“The two loan officials were okay because they had some little money with them. They were being fed on their own money except they were very dirty and also said those people in cells wanted to beat them, torture them but after giving them Shs 100,000 they were not tortured. They had to buy their lives,” he added.
