OTTAWA — Exclusive information reaching PML Daily indicates that Departed Asians’ Property Custodian Board Executive Director George William Bizibu has been denied Visa by Canadian Authorities while MP Ibrahim Kasozi who is leading his colleagues in a month-long trip to Canada and United Kingdom is also having problems with the Visa.
Mr. Bizibu and MP Kasozi are part of the Parliamentary delegation to Canada and United Kingdom by COSASE, purportedly to look for former owners of Asian properties to verify letters of repossession, in disregard of a Constitutional Court petition challenging the probe.
It is not clearly understood why Mr Bizibu has been denied Visa to the Canadian capital but commentators believe the matter could be related to fraud.
The reports have also been confirmed by Counsel Franklin Shostack of Devry Smith Frank LLP in Canada who has applied to the Uganda High Commission in Canada for permission to keep a watch on MPs activities in Ottawa, citing human rights breaches.
In a letter to Uganda High Commission, Ottawa Canada, the Lawyers representing a section of Ugandans of Asian descent being targeted by the current parliamentary probe have questioned the validity of Parliament’s sudden interest in Asian properties despite the fact that the Legislative body has no proprietary interest in the repossessed property saying the decision contravenes sections in the Uganda constitution back home.
Lawyers have also asked to be given permission to attend any such Canadian Proceedings in the interest of Asian minorities by the probe which they say is solely based on their race, color, and ethnic origin.
“We have been asked to contact you to inquire whether any hearings, meetings or other Canadian Proceedings have been scheduled to be conducted in Canada and to request that we be informed of such proceedings and be given permission to attend any such Canadian Proceedings,” Lawyer noted.
“We do not intend to make any representations or other presentations at such Canadian proceedings but merely wish to observe the proceedings in the interests of human rights and the effect on minority communities,” Counsel Shostack of Devry Smith Frank LLP noted.
Back home, the Ugandans of Asian descent on Tuesday, January 14, through their lawyers of Akampumuza & Co. Advocates petitioned the Attorney General — protesting a blatant contempt of Court, breach of the Law and the subjudice rule by the Parliament’s COSASE DAPCB and the embattled Bizibu in his individual capacity.
They also protested the trip to Canada.
“While Bizibu and DFAPCB are part of the Parliamentary delegation, our clients were never invited to travel along for obvious reasons. The above acts as evidence of how far your officials are ready to go to undermine the constitutional court unhindered,” the Group’s protest by Akampumuza & Co. Advocates reads.
“This does not board well for the rule of law as it is willful, a flagrant breach of the subjudice rule and therefore contempt of court being conducted by the very Parliament and Executive which are mandated to preserve and protect the constitution.
In an earlier petition last year, group castigated Parliament for singling them out as a specific category of Ugandans citizens of Asian descent who repossessed, manage, purchased and or inherited private property for dispossessing and canceling their certificates of repossession and titles while leaving out persons of other nationalities who similarly reposed or purchased repossessed private property contravenes the constitution.
The team also protested the move by Parliament to reverse the repossession exercise, selling off properties and the Board continuing to hold out to be the land controlling authority the body mandated to take over the remaining unclaimed expropriated Asian properties which the Minister appointed by gazetting which extinguished the Board substratum and the inaction of the Uganda Land Commission is inconsistent with articles 91(1), 92,155(1), 154(1), 238 and 239 of the constitution.
“Despite the petition having been duly served, you have left the respondent for whom you are acting parallel to the constitutional Court, in blatant breach of the subjudice rule. Shockingly is that William Bizibu, from the DAPCB is the main architect and an active participant in the Parliamentary proceedings when he is not a Member of Parliament,” the petitioners noted.
