[Ugnet] Opondo the povert who shoplifts women's under pant

It is very doubtful that Opondo shoplifted women's underpant because he could not afford to pay for it. ..after all this is an NRM bwana Mukuwa who is well facilitated ( financially that is). I think the english language has a word for Women underpant lovers like opondo. ..and this is the man who dubs as NRM Director of Information at the Movement Secretariat...combe kicinicini the man is a povert who likes collecting women's underpants!!

Mr Ofwono Opondo, the Director of Information at the Movement Secretariat, has withdrawn a libel suit he filed against The Monitor Publications Ltd in April for publishing a story about his reported shoplifting incident at Uchumi Supermarket.

Opondo's lawyers, M/S Mungoma, Mabonga, Wakhakha & Co. Advocates, wrote to the Registrar of the Kampala High Court Civil Division on Friday applying to withdraw the case.

They said Opondo had instructed them to withdraw the case because he believed "he is not likely to receive justice."

The case was to be heard on May 31.

Among the grounds they cited for the withdrawal, was "the court's failure in protecting our client from the defendant's manipulation of the public mind through their continued publicity of libelous, false and highly defamatory articles against his person."

The lawyers added that by court declining to grant a temporary injunction, The Monitor had been "given a free reign in the accusing, trial, conviction and sentencing of our client to a crime he never committed."

Opondo had asked court to restrain The Monitor from publishing further stories about his suspected shoplifting incident. However, Justice Stella Arach-Amoko on May 10 threw out the application saying Opondo's was "not one of the clearest cases where an injunction may be granted."

She agreed with The Monitor lawyer James Nangwala's argument that court should not grant an injunction when the libelous character of the publication was in dispute and when Opondo's allegation concerning the libel was not yet proven.

In their letter asking to withdraw the suit, Opondo's lawyers added that The Monitor was "taking advantage of their power of the press to freely or wantonly publish evidence which would be called in the suit to bias the public and may be even the court."

In a letter yesterday signed by Ag. Assistant Registrar Paul Gadenya Wolimbwa, court granted the withdrawal with costs to The Monitor.

Nangwala said Opondo was free to withdraw the case as provided for in the law.

"A party is free to withdraw a suit at any one time because it is his or her right," he said.

"However, the reasons given in Mungoma's letter are very unfortunate because the judicial process says that one who is not satisfied with the decision of a judge can appeal."

Nangwala said he would pursue the issue of costs of the suit "very vigorously."

Mr Opondo is supposed to bear the costs.

"He has withdrawn from the legal battle," Nangwala said, "but I don't know if he has accepted defeat."

Monitor Executive Editor Peter Mwesige said, "We respect Mr Opondo's decision to withdraw his case, which he should never have filed in the first place. But we are disappointed that his move has denied us an opportunity to prove the veracity of our reporting in court."

Opondo sued the newspaper, its editor and a reporter following a story published on April 5 that he had been held and fined by Uchumi Supermarket staff at Garden City for shoplifting a pen and an underwear.

He said the publication maliciously implied that he was "a common thief, a liar and a fraudster, a criminal" and was not fit for his post.

Opondo added that every story about the incident had attracted a lot of prominence, boosted The Monitor's sales and greatly injured his reputation.

He claimed he was being shunned by some of his colleagues and friends following the publications, and demanded Shs100 million in general damages and costs of the suit.

However, The Monitor said it was ready to prove that Opondo had actually shoplifted a pen and an underwear from Uchumi Supermarket.

In a written statement of defence filed by lawyers, Ms Nangwala, Rezida & Co. Advocates on April 14, the newspaper said it had documentary evidence and 19 witnesses ready to pin Opondo.

The lawyers said the newspaper had not defamed Opondo but had brought his reputation to its level.

The Monitor reported in its April 5 issue that management at Uchumi had fined Opondo after security stopped him as he was moving away with undeclared items he had picked from the stalls.

Opondo is said to have signed a statement under the name John Richard Okello, 39, in which he said, "I got these items in the shelf but put the pen in pocket and a loose underpant together with my handkerchief. I am sorry for the mishap."

The Monitor's defence included 10 different documents including a statement made at Uchumi by Opondo under the false name of Okello. It also included statements made to investigators by Uchumi staff and an email to The Monitor from Opondo in which he admitted taking a pen from Uchumi without paying for it.

In the email, which was published as a letter to The Monitor, Opondo said the story had "hit me a little below the belt, was exaggerated and generally tried to scandalise my names before my family, friends, and right thinking people."

He said he had only forgotten to pay for a Bic pen, but denied that any other items were involved. Opondo added that he neither recorded a statement nor got fined.

[Ugnet] Opondo the povert who shoplifts women's under pant

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