Uganda Peoples’ Congress (UPC) under the administration of Lira Municipality legislator, Jimmy Michael Akena is weighing legal action against Orient Bank, accusing the institution of illegally freezing the party accounts.
The party administrative Secretary, Higenyi Kemba told Chimpreports on Wednesday that, “The whole closure of the UPC accounts in Orient Bank is an action of sabotage orchestrated by the Milton Obote Foundation (MOF) group led by Peter Warubiri whose game plan has always been to kill the party and the its properties.”
“On the orders of a letter written by Warubiri, the Bank went ahead to close the UPC accounts despite a High Court ruling that upheld the status quo of the Akena administration and the Electoral Commission’s letter informing them of the new leadership of the party,” Kemba said.
This move Kemba says affected the party, in that its candidates were denied access to funds that would have enabled them put up a strong competition during the election campaigns.
“We were running the accounts from June last year up to January when the Bank took a decision to freeze our accounts without any earlier notice,” he said.
In their letter to the UPC, the Bank notified them that they wouldn’t access the account anymore until Court pronounced itself on rightful party leadership.
“We want Orient Bank to unblock our accounts on grounds that we are the rightful owners of those accounts since we are the recognized signatories,” Kemba warned.
He threatened that in case the bank fails to adhere with their request, they will deal with it firmly through all means possible.
“These means are not limited to taking legal action against them and calling upon all our members to close their accounts with the bank and boycott all its services.”
All efforts to reach Orient Bank Kampala Road Branch Manager didn’t mature since his known contacts were unreachable.