A Senior official in the immigration department is under the custody of the military intelligence (CMI) after he was arrested for allegedly selling Ugandan passports to foreigners who would then use them for illegal activity.
The detained officer has been identified as Ronald Magala Ssematiko, the Principal Immigration Officer at the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
According to some members of staff at the Ministry, Ssematiko was arrested two weeks ago.
The continued detention of Ronald Magala has scared several immigration bosses leading to some “cleaning up” in order to conceal their trail of illegal dealings, sources who work at the Ministry of Internal Affairs told this website.
Last Friday, six immigration staff were interdicted by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as those in.charge of stores where passports and stickers are kept.
Sources say other immigration officials including one named Nicholas Ongodia worry that Magala is likely to implicate them in matters of issuing citizenship status to foreign individuals who do not merit. Ongodia is said to be searching for lawyers to prepare for his defence in case he is interdicted or arrested.
Staff SoftPower News has spoken to say the files kept in the office of the Passport Control officer with printed passports are many. ”
“Many passports have already been collected by the owners (majority were Somalis, Rwandese, and other groups),” a member of staff told this news website.
Another source within the Ministry said that Magala authorised the printing of the passport of someone who claimed to be a “First Son”.
“If investigators were to summon the entire team of citizenship headed by Lucy Kavuma, they would be shocked what the staff would reveal,” the source who preferred their name not revealed told SoftPower News.
We also understand that files of passports and citizenship were the whole of last week taken away from arrested Magala’s office and that of Ongodia by office attendants.
“These people are trying to erase evidence to help Magala who is in custody,” added the source.
Ongodia, on his part, is worried that arrested Magala could implicate him and is also said to be taking files out of office.
There appears to be what the official called “abnormal silence” at the Ministry about Magala’s arrest and that nobody has substantial information as to whether they too are being probed or if they will be arrested.
A credible source close to investigations told SoftPower News that immigration top officials are engaged in many dubious activities, and that authorities within security are widening the investigation to have more of those implicated apprehended.
“We have been investigating them. We are going to start a clean up of that place soon. There is overwhelming evidence against the rotten racket from the top,” a source within security said.
This source revealed that they have already unearthed shocking details in the passport database, among them a passport that was issued to a Nigerian but the holder is captured in the database as a Munyankole born in Ibanda.
