CORNERED! M7 minister faces arrest, to pay Shs80m over mother’s grave row

The row between Hellen Grace Asamo, the Minister of Disabilities, and her two siblings, Isaac Eryaku and Martha Atai over access to their deceased mother’s grave has deepened. Phoebe Auma Iyapo, who died on 15. 09.2021. The matter has now been taken to court again after the minister refused to be part of the mediation process to solve the matter amicably. She is now being accused of contempt of court and the siblings want her to be arrested and committed to a civil prison for six months. On top of that they want her to pay fines of shs 30 million, shs 50 million as compensation, damages and as well costs of the application. She has up to 30^th December, this year to defend herself.

But how did we reach here?

The old woman was sick for a very short time and Asamo took the sick woman to Kampala in Norvik Hospital in an attempt to save her life but it was in vain. When the old woman died, the brother and sister asked for the medical reports to ascertain what killed the old woman. It was rumored that the old woman had been poisoned. Secondly, they wanted to take the body for postmortem to ascertain the cause of the death before burial.

Thirdly, the family wanted to bury the deceased in the land they had designated for that purpose.

But, they alleged that the Minister Asamo, did not agree with any of the three suggestions. She did not give the family the medical report, she did not agree to take the deceased body for a postmortem by other doctors, and that the deceased was going to be buried in a strange cemetery which the family had not agreed to.

This made Asamo’s siblings to report the matter for court injunction before the burial. Indeed, on 17.09.2021 the court delivered an injunction preventing the burial of the old woman. But, that Asamo ignored the letter from court and went ahead with the burial of the old woman at gunpoint.

It took the intervention of Rt. Rev. Bishop Hosea Odongo of Soroti Diocese for Hon. Asamo to restrain security deployment so that they could reach the burial site of their own beloved mother.

Even when they got to the burial ground, it again took the intervention of Bishop Emeritus Charles Obaikol and the Arch deacon Olupot to allow them view the body of their late mother, which rites Hon. Asamo had ordered that they should not be permitted to do so.

The two siblings would later then go back to court where they were granted access to the Medical Report, access to the grave site to perform cultural and religious rites. Court also restrained Asamo from violating her siblings’ rights.

The Judge implored them to reconcile and let their mother rest in peace as it would be morally inappropriate to exhume her body. In the same spirit of reconciliation the siblings withdrew the contempt of Court Application as requested by Asamo.

After a long tussle in court, Asamo’s lawyer, Ilukor and Eryaku’s lawyer, Omongole following the court order of the production of the medical report, then Asamo surrendered the report through her lawyer. In the report, it was stated that the old woman died of heart disease.

Instead of embarking on a path of reconciliation, Asamo instead locked their siblings out of their mother’s grave in a newly constructed house with a huge padlock in total violation of a subsisting Court Order. Even those who attempted to access the grave in preparations for prayers and cultural rites were arrested and charged with Criminal Trespass without a complainant or Police Reference Number.

BACK TO COURT

Left with no option, the siblings have decided to go back to court to force the minister to stop further violations of the previous court orders. Watch this space! DO YOU HAVE A HOT STORY (CHEATERS, DIVORCE, VIDEOS, CORRUPTION, LAND WRANGLES, EXPOSES …ETAL) YOU WOULD LIKE US TO PUBLISH? CALL/TEXT/WHATSAPP 0777959024 OR EMAILredpeppertips@gmail.com