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KAMPALA - The Director for Information at the Movement Secretariat, Mr Ofwono Opondo, faces arrest for failure to pay a debt of Shs1.5 million.
The Commercial Court Division at the High Court on Friday issued a notice for Opondo (right) to explain why a warrant of arrest should not be issued against him. This followed an application by Pearl Advocates & Solicitors to have Opondo arrested for failure to pay the debt.
"You are hereby required to appear before this court on the 26th day of May 2005 at 2:30 p.m. to show cause why you should not be committed to civil prison �" the notice, a copy of which The Monitor has seen, reads in part.
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Opondo
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Opondo owes Pearl Advocates & Solicitors over Shs1.5 million in legal fees after the latter took him to court over failure to pay back a loan to Kenroy Investments, a Kampala money-lending company.
Opondo owed Kenroy investments Shs6.5 million accruing from a Shs3 million loan he acquired at a rate of 15% per annum in October 2002.
"When he was served with court summons over this debt, he went and negotiated on the mode of payment with Kenroy investments," Evans Tusiime, a lawyer with Pearl Advocates said.
After negotiations, Kenroy investments agreed that Opondo pays the principal of Shs4.2 million plus legal fees instead of the Shs6.5 million.
"We agreed that he pays the money in three equal instalments and also meet the lawyers' fees, and he has already paid Shs1.9 million so far," said Mr Manzi Tumubweine of Kenroy Investments.
Tumubweine said Opondo paid the Shs1.9 million last week.
"On my side he is paying, I don't know what is ha
ppening on the side of the lawyers," Tumubweine said by telephone on Tuesday.
Tusiime said when he contacted Opondo by phone, he was not courteous.
"He started saying we are trying to extort money from him and called us names," Tusiime said on Tuesday.
Pearl Advocates then contacted Kenroy Investments, who advised them to file petition court to recover their fees, Tusiime said.
"Tumubweine advised us to file our bill in court and this we did and it was taxed," Tusiime said. "We then applied for execution by way of arrest and detention in civil prison but the registrar advised against it saying we serve him first with a notice to show cause."
When contacted Tuesday evening, Opondo expressed ignorance of the court notice but did not say whether or not he was aware of the fees owed to Pearl Advocates.
"I have not received the summons," he said.
Opondo also denied owing Kenroy Investments any money. "I don't owe them any money," he said
before hang ing up.
Tusiime said if Opondo failed to honour the notice, they would be left with no option but to arrest him and have him committed to civil prison. | 
