A senior Special Forces Command (SFC) officer has reportedly been taken into custody over questionable clearance of a Sudanese billionaire through the VIP section at Entebbe International Airport.
Highly placed security sources told Daily Monitor that the officer, identified by his first name as Major Robert, was detained at SFC headquarters in Kasenyi, Entebbe, in the first week of July.
He was accused of irregularly facilitating Ibrahim Hassan Mohammed Abuhalima, a Sudanese billionaire with close ties to the Qatar royal family, to get into the country through the VIP section at Entebbe Airport where scrutiny is less rigorous.
Mr Abuhalima reportedly flew into the country on a private jet, registration 5Y-JIB, on June 30 and shortly afterwards, the plane headed to pick a political executive of a neighbouring country on a private visit.
Our investigations show that the local agent for the commercial flight was a member of the First Family, whom we are not naming because we were unable to speak to him, and the purpose was “drop and pick up investors on official government [business]”.
Maj Robert, an SFC officer attached to Airport security, is still under investigations and there is nothing at present to suggest culpability, according to sources familiar with the case.
“He was arrested and detained early last month,” another source said, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
However, Maj Dennis Omara, the SFC spokesman, last evening denied the allegations that he said he was hearing for the first time, adding that the named officer was on duty at Entebbe International Airport.
“I have talked to my leaders and they have given me clear information that there is no Sudanese (national) who was cleared recently by the officer.
It is not true and the officer you [named] actually even now is doing his normal duty … there is no such person (Abuhalima)who was cleared whether on business or official duty,” he said.
This newspaper has, however, seen a copy of an aircraft clearance reference number CAA/UGA/20210629/453B, and dated June 29, 2021, authorising the three-crew member plane from Wilson Airport in Kenya to land at Entebbe International Airport the next day.
