Landlord is not demanding me at all, says Arua RDC

By Andrew Cohen Amvesi June 3, 2022

ARUA. Ham Ezama Muzamil, the Arua deputy resident district commissioner (RDC) has come out publicly to deny media reports that he was evicted from his shop in Arua town over accumulated rent arrears.

Instead, Ezama on Friday said the landlord locked his TECNO Arua phones and service center shop no.2, plot 12 along Avenue Road much earlier even when he continued paying rent. Ezama said he made the latest upfront rent payment of shs13,000,000 on February 23, 2022 which is still running.

The RDC opened up after court bailiffs threw out all his property from the shop on orders of court on Tuesday.

Ezama has now threatened to drag the landlord to court with the aim of recovering shs140m worth of the value of his lost stock.

“I’m so disappointed because of what happened recently. First of all, this is a malicious procedure being taken by the landlord, Draza Jackson. The reason is that on April 4, 2022, we served him with the letter of intention to sue because he had locked my shop on May 27, 2021 when my rent was still running,” Ezama said.

“He instructed his boy called Denis to lock the shop and when this boy came to lock the shop, he found all my people in the shop, they gave me a call and when I rushed there, I found the boy had already locked the shop using a key and also doubled some chain on top of it. I reported the matter to the police and I even have a police SD Reference. I had a police officer who also went and saw what happened,” Ezama explained.

Ezama said he made a statement to the police and also brought witnesses who equally made statements in that regard.

“But the unfortunate thing that time was, the landlord himself doesn’t stay in the country, he is outside. He gives instructions from there but he doesn’t follow up, so since then the door wasn’t opened and since those people had the keys with them, there was no way I could remove my things because the door is inbuilt with the padlocks. The tenant comes, the landlord hands him a key yet he remains with spare keys,” Ezama narrated.

He said they realized the trick at the time the landlord’s son came to lock the shop. Ezama said when his shop attendants tried to insist, the boy pulled out a key from his pocket and locked the place.

“That is when we realized that the building has some other spare keys with the landlord. When my workers explained that to me on the phone, I instructed them to give that one key they had back to the landlord which Draza’s boy picked and went with. We don’t have any keys, so I kept on paying my rent from shs1.7m, they increased to shs2m and from shs2m they increased to shs2.5m,” Ezama said.

“As we are talking now, on February 23^rd this year, I paid shs13m in the account of the landlord and I still possess the bank slip and even they issued for me an acknowledgement receipt for that money,” Ezama added.

He said what they are pulling rope on right now is not about defaulting rent payment, but it is over why the landlord locked his shop for more than nine months now.

“My shop is locked, you still demand rent and I pay, but where is my stock, what is the situation of my stock?” Ezama asked, adding that it is the basis of the standoff.

The RDC said as the situation continued, he had to summon the landlord in the High Court of Arua.

He noted that before the matter was heard, the landlord played his game by going to Grade One court where he secured an order to evict him in his absence.

“People knew that I had stayed in that shop for close to five years now and they knew that it was one of the best performing shops. I have the record in the bank statement of paying money for buying stock from TECNO company; the deposit slips are there, the transfer forms from my company accounts to that account of the company that supplies me are still there. I also have a running trading license for that business. I have the list of the stock which was in the shop. Now I heard people saying they found nothing in the shop. Of course, they might find nothing because the people who locked the door still possess the items and they know where they have kept the stock,” Ezama said.

He observed that for the landlord to pretend coming to break the door of the shop will not save him at all in courts of law.

“This is still the first half of the game; they have just played it but we are going for the second half which is in the High Court. Up to now, I want the landlord to tell me how much he is demanding from me. Either on radio or through the lawyers that you have not paid me shs20m, shs10m or shs5m, that one will not be there because if you have received shs13m on February 23, 2022, then you terminate the contract in March what is the gap between February and March, it means my rent period is still running,” Ezama further explained.

He said he has already taken a decision to drag Draza to court so as to recover shs140m being the value of the stock in the landlord’s possession, loss of business opportunity and paid-up rent received by the landlord.

However, earlier this week, Gerald Adomati, the Lawyer representing the landlord, couldn’t disclose the exact amount of money his client was demanding from Ezama.

“We cannot disclose the details of our client’s information to the media but what we can make the press know is that the landlord is exercising his right of re-entry into the premises because there is no existing contract between the landlord and the tenant anymore,” Adomati said.

Ends