Justice Steven Kavuma’s court order barring the House from investigating a cash reward given to public servants involved in the Heritage and Tullow oil tax dispute case has been extracted after the petitioner Eric Sabiiti bowed to pressure from his bosses at the Electoral Commission.
Mr. Eric Sabiiti has for the past 36 hours faced a lot of difficulty from his bosses at the EC where he works as their legal officer after a series of secret meetings within Mr. Sabiiti was grilled for ‘creating a bad public image as a government body like URA and Parliament.
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The controversial lawyer had a few days ago petitioned Deputy Chief Justice Steven Kavuma to stop Parliament or any individual from inquiring into the Shs6b oil cash bonanza – an injunction that Speaker Rebecca Kadaga the following day christened as “stupid” and with unflinching fists declared the House sittings suspended indefinitely.
An insider reveals that the EC ordered Mr. Sabiiti to immediately extract the petition as it seemed his acts that as much reflected on their image had led to the adjourned of Parliament sine die (with no resumption date) until the court order is quashed on grounds that no parliamentary work can be conducted with the court order in place.
EC Spokesperson Jotham Taremwa confirmed that indeed the top leadership met on Wednesday at 10:00am at the headquarters along Jinja Road in Kampala but was unwilling to reveal more details about the matter though it was clearly meant to discipline Mr. Sabiiti for using electoral body’s name to take legal action without consulting management.
Mr. Sabiiti employers gave him an ultimatum of following their orders or get fired and he obliged.
His legal representatives Chandia and D.W Advocates later went to Parliament to apologize to Ms. Kadaga and the nation saying they rushed into the petition without adequate information.
According to Robert Rutaro who was part of Mr. Sabiti’s legal team, the matter has been withdrawn and the House is at liberty to reopen and carryout its business.
“After holding a lengthy consultative meeting between Mr Eric Sabiiti the petitioner and the Attorney General, in the presence of respective counsel, the parties have agreed to withdraw the said petition that caused paralysis and closure of parliament,” Rutaro said in his statement.
