Judge sues Barclays over Land Fraud

A Ugandan judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague has sued Barclays Bank Uganda over a plot of land that he claims was fraudulently acquired from him.

Daniel Ntanda-Nsereko, the president of the Appellate Division of the ICC, is seeking to recover the piece of land, worth over sh600m.

He is also suing two bank customers, Umar Ssebunnya and Wilson Ssebwami, alleging that they connived to obtain the title for his land in Kawempe and mortgaged it for only sh30m after they had forged his signature and obtained powers of attorney.

Nsereko alleges that the one acre piece of land in Kyadondo at Keti Falawoo parish in Kawempe division, was fraudulently transferred into Ssebwami's name.

He is seeking orders cancelling the transfer and compensation for damages caused to him.

Barclays Bank is also being sued for having taken over the rights and liabilities of the defunct Nile Bank Limited in which Ssebunnya and Ssebwami initially mortgaged the disputed land.

Justice Anna Mary Magezi of the land division of the High Court has given the parties up to January 29, to narrow down the agreed facts of the case and to formulate the issues in dispute, so the case can start.

Nsereko is represented by Ssendege, Sennyondo and Company Advocates.

He argues that strangely, the powers of attorney, though lodged together with the mortgage deed in the land office, had not been used in the execution of the mortgage deed.

Nsereko is asking the court to cancel Ssebwami's name from the certificate of title of the disputed land and a permanent injunction restraining all the defendants from interfering with his enjoyment of the property.

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