Interpol Tanzania Unaware of Jack Pemba Arrest in Uganda
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Tags: Commissioner of Police, Dar es Salaam, International Police, Interpol, Jack Pemba, Socialite Jack Pemba, Steve Stavropolise, Uganda's Deputy Inspector General of Police
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International Police (Interpol) in Tanzania is unaware of the arrest and claimed joint investigations with its Ugandan counterparts on businessman Jack Pemba on money laundering allegations.
“Maybe there could be other state organs in Dar es Salaam working with law enforcement organs in Kampala on the said allegations, but the Interpol office in Tanzania is neither aware of the arrest nor the joint investigations,” the Head of Interpol in Tanzania, Mr Gustav Babile, told the ‘Daily News’ in Dar es Salaam yesterday.
Media reports from Uganda suggest that police in the country have been conducting joint investigations with police in Tanzania. The controversial businessman was reportedly arrested last Sunday at the Entebbe International Airport as he was trying to leave the country.
However, Commissioner of Police (CP) Babile, who heads the Interpol in Tanzania, said his office was not involved in the claimed investigations with Ugandan counterparts. “As a matter of fact, I am hearing of this information regarding the arrest and probe (on Jack Pemba) from you,” Mr Babile said in a telephone interview.
Contacted for comments, Police Spokesperson Advera Bulimba, asked for more time to follow-up on the report.
“I am currently in a meeting; give me until tomorrow (today) so that I can make a follow-up on the matter,” the police publicist said. Uganda’s Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) who doubles as the force’s spokesperson, Mr Asan Kasingye, was quoted saying that he was yet to get details of the arrest, adding: “Tanzania and Ugandan police were investigating him over money laundering when I was still Interpol director.”
“I read about the arrest in papers but by the time I left Interpol, we were working with our counterparts from Tanzania to investigate him after getting complaints of being involved in money laundering,” Kasingye said. It was reported in the media that Mr Pemba was apprehended by plain clothed security operatives who had been monitoring him.
Mr Pemba, who has kept many speculating on the source of his income as he gives out dollars at music concerts and sports events, was recently cited in a botched US $700,000 dollars gold scandal.
It has since been alleged that although he poses around as a wealthy businessman, Mr Pemba has been a subject of a joint investigation by both Uganda police and Interpol for alleged money laundering for a long time.
On the fateful day, the businessman was netted following a court order that demands his arrest for allegedly defrauding a European businessman identified as Steve Stavropolise of US $700,000.
It is alleged that Pemba and Stavropolise entered into a deal whereby the former was to procure and deliver gold and copper worth the amount, the deal he never fulfilled.
