City pastor accused of human trafficking
By JOHN NJOROGE
Posted Thursday, June 7 2012 at 00:00
Posted Thursday, June 7 2012 at 00:00
In a report seen by Daily Monitor, a whistleblower said the pastor, whose name is being withheld for legal reasons, used a radio station associated with him to sponsor visa applications for several Ugandans and paid for their tickets to the US in April 2008.
The group of three had return air-tickets and left on April 1, 2008. Although they were supposed to return to Uganda on April 15, 2008, the whistleblower alleges that the group instead disappeared into the U.S. to seek work as illegal aliens.
Efforts to speak to the pastor were futile as he was reported to be out of the country. The US Embassy in Kampala yesterday declined to confirm whether the people named in the whistleblower report had left the United States, citing a policy of not commenting on individual visa cases.
However, embassy spokesperson Dan Travis said: “The
US Mission takes all allegations of visa fraud very seriously, and investigates
each to the fullest extent possible. Any non US
citizen who knowingly aids another non US
citizen to enter the United States
illegally is ineligible for a US
visa.”
The allegations come in the wake of increased reports of cases involving Ugandan nationals in illicit drug rackets, human trafficking and massive tax evasion rackets in the country and abroad, particularly in Asia and in the US.
Last week arrest
Last week, a team of US Marshals arrested Robert Nyakana, 40, a Ugandan-born US resident whose brother, Godfrey Nyakaana, is the LC3 chairman of Kampala Central Division.
Interpol Chief Assan Kasingye yesterday confirmed that Mr Nyakana was arrested by US law enforcement officials and flown out of the country.
“He is being held in connection with allegations of cocaine trafficking,” he said.
Sources privy to details of the case say Mr Nyakana, who has been living in Richmond, Virginia, has been on the run from US Drug Enforcement officials for over a year.
The US Marshals Service has described Mr Nyakana as “armed and dangerous.”
“Do not attempt to apprehend this individual, Call the U.S. Marshals Service 24-hour number 1-877-WANTED2 (1-877-926-8332) or the nearest DEA office with information. Rewards are available at the discretion of the U.S. Marshals Service,” the Marshals warned on DEA website.
Meanwhile, Uganda embassy officials have confirmed that more than 100 Ugandans are in prisons in various Chinese cities over drug-related offenses.
Most of them now face the death penalty.
In addition, the Jakarta Post newspaper in Indonesia reported this week that a 39-year-old Ugandan, Bhasir Gadafi Polikoko, was arrested at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, last week, for attempting to smuggle drugs into the island.
Mr Polikoko reportedly arrived in Bali from Doha, Qatar, with 66 pellet capsules of crystal methamphetamine in his stomach, weighing 1 kilogram. Airport officials discovered the drugs after examining Polikoko’s body. He faces a maximum penalty of death if convicted.
jnjoroge@ug.nationmedia.com
Pastors
can only con part-time thinkers
Publish Date: Jul 31, 2007
EDITOR, ”Nearly
every newspaper article I have read since journalists started exposing pastors
who con Ugandans has been critical for obvious reasons. But there is the other
side of the coin we are not looking at.
Without trying to absolve the errant pastors from any blame, I will critically look at that side. The vast majority of the people who have been conned seem to be afraid to think, and they believe because they are afraid not todo so. Some of these people, for example, take money to pastors because they want to get visas to go either to Britain or to the United States for menial jobs. Most Ugandans I know who live and work in the UK and America are illegal immigrants.
And those who are desperate to go also want live there illegally. So when someone tells a pastor that they need a UK or a US visa, and that he should pray for them to get a visa, it means that Jesus or God listens to and answers prayers of wrongdoers! Anybody who does not think part-time must know that no amount of prayers can get you a visa.
You get a visa because you have convincing reasons to get one. Ugandans who think pastors can enable them get visas should be frank and tell them that they want to live abroad illegally. If the pastors insist that they can still pray for them to get visas, they should ask the pastors why Jesus or God would allow this.
They should ask pastors how prayers can make non-convincing reasons for seeking a visa become convincing. Many people who go to the numerous churches of born-again Christians in Uganda have failed to ask questions they must ask because they are afraid to think. Other reasons have something to do with the fact that religious claims are not supposed to be questioned.
They are not subjected to the same close scrutiny other claims and assertions are subjected to. A pastor can tell his congregation that he talked to God and they will be content to go with that yet a pastor is a human being like everybody else.
We all have five senses that perceive things that exist and should use them. If you believe in a reasonable and thoughtful God, you will be alright.
People who are doing religious work should also find other jobs to do. They do not have to do this full-time and expect others to finance their lifestyles.
Robert Musaazi Namiti
Cardiff University, UK