|
KAMPALA — The Internal Security Organisation (ISO)
operative arrested with a loaded gun at Nile Hotel gardens on June 6, 2004
has said he was deployed there on official duty.
Mr Godfrey
Musisi was arrested next to a tent where eight other heads of state were
to join their host, President Yoweri Museveni for a luncheon.
Highly placed
security sources inside ISO told The Monitor that Musisi is a trained
professional assassin, and had done intensive training in the United
States in counter terrorism operations. His presence with a loaded gun
near the tents where visiting presidents were supposed to have lunch was a
serious security breach.
Musisi told
The Monitor in an exclusive interview smuggled out of his prison cell in
Kigo Prison that he was deployed by his boss, the Director of Operations
at ISO, Lt. Mulamagi. He stated his orders were to guard one of the tents
where the presidents of the Common Market for East and Southern Africa
(COMESA) were to have lunch.
According to
Musisi, the Presidential Guard Brigade (PGB) personnel came over to him
asking him to identify himself. When he did so, even showing his pistol,
the PGB officers called Mulamagi who told them “to treat me like any other
intruder,” Musisi said. The PGB then handed him to the Chieftaincy of
Military Intelligence (CMI).
According to
a highly placed security source, Museveni took his security staff to task
asking whether they were sure Musisi was alone, insisting that there could
be five or 10 more possible assassins in the vicinity undetected by
security. Unable to get a satisfactory answer, the President cancelled the
luncheon with his fellow visiting heads of state giving the excuse that he
was busy.
Musisi stated he is a victim of inter-agency rivalry between
CMI and ISO.
He stated
when CMI operatives went to search his house, they tried to force him to
sign an agreement where he and ISO Director General Col. Elly Kayanja
planned to assassinate President Museveni.
According to
Musisi’s testimony, CMI had a written agreement between Kayanja and
himself in which the ISO boss agreed to give Musisi a lot of money in
exchange for Musisi killing Museveni. “Why does CMI want to manufacture
evidence of a plot to kill Museveni,” Musisi wondered in his prison notes
to The Monitor.
Musisi stated
that when the PGB handed him to CMI, he was taken to a safe house inside
Mbuya barracks where he was held incommunicado for 10 days. However,
Musisi stated, when The Monitor broke the story of his arrest, CMI moved
him to its headquarters in Kitante Courts from where he was taken for a
search of his home.
Musisi said
he was tortured by CMI to sign the alleged agreement between him and
Kayanja but he refused. He stated that CMI then confiscated his passport,
took all the documents regarding an earlier 2000 case he had against CMI
before the Uganda Human Rights Commission and others regarding a case
against the Attorney General regarding wrongful dismissal from ISO in
2001.
Musisi told
stated that after a search of his home, CMI took him before Mbuya First
Division Court Martial where he was charged with attempted assassination,
treason, terrorism and disobedience of lawful orders.
Thereafter,
Musisi said, he was transferred to Kigo prison where he has been for four
weeks. In written answers to The Monitor’s questions, Musisi wonders why
his immediate boss who deployed him at Nile Hotel has not been charged for
any crimes. He also wonders why he did not appear before the Court Martial
the day he was supposed to.
Musisi wrote
to The Monitor that he has never been allowed to make a statement, and
that all this was an attempt by CMI to hide the truth regarding his case.
He wonders why, a person like him, who was on official duty, deployed at
Nile Hotel by ISO, armed by the state, is now charged with attempted
assassination, treason and terrorism.
The deputy
chief of CMI, Lt. Col. James Mugira, told The Monitor last evening, that
although he had not studied Musisi’s file, it was unlikely that CMI
operatives could have tried to force him to sign an assassination
agreement. “It is unconceivable that anyone can sign an assassination
agreement,” Mugira said, “Why would CMI then try to force him to sign one
in the first place?”
Mugira said
there were very clear and written regulations that no one was supposed to
be armed in the parameter where Musisi was found with a loaded gun.
“His boss,
Mulamagi, did not authorise Musisi to have a loaded gun in that vicinity
and could therefore not be charged.” Given that Musisi was wrongfully
armed in that vicinity, we cannot rule out attempted assassination charges
against him, Mugira said.
Mugira also
said he was not aware that Musisi was not allowed to record a statement,
and said he would appear before court for trial once investigations are
complete.
| 
