Ntagazwa freed in false pretence case

Dar es Salaam. Former Cabinet minister Arcado Ntagazwa yesterday failed to prevent tears after the Kisutu Resident Magistrates’ Court acquited him in a case where he had been accused of obtaining goods by false pretence.

Mr Ntagazwa, a former State minister in the Vice President’s Office (Environment), was charged along with Senator Julius Miselya and his son Webhale Ntagazwa with illegally obtaining 5,000 caps and 5,000 Tee-shirts worth Sh74.95 million the property of Mr Noel Severe.

According to the prosecution, the accused had promised to pay the owner of the goods within a month, but failed to do so.

Ntagazwa, who stood at the defendant’s dock, shed tears when resident magistrate Geni Dudu announced that, together with his co accused, he was free after prosecution failed to prove the charge beyond reasonable doubt.

“Prosecution failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt, as a result of which doubts emerged. The court sees the accused as not offenders and is setting them free,” ruled magistrate Dudu.

Elaborating the judgment, magistrate Dudu said that evidence did not show that the accused intended to obtain the properties by false pretences as prosecution said.

Mr Dudu said that according to defense documents produced to the court, including minutes, showed that the Afford Company during the trustees meeting, in which Mr Ntagazwa and the first accused (Miselya) were among the trustees, approved a budget for printing the Tee-shirts and caps.

The magistrate said that, all the events showed that the order sent to Visual Storm Company to print the Tee-shirts and caps was not fraudulent... people sent the order believing that they could pay, he noted.

He further said that, even the nature of the properties were not for business purposes, the Tee-shirts were to be distributed free-of-charge to the society so as to get a message about a campaign against corruption.

“The order did not show the motive of false pretences and it’s my opinion that even non-payment of invitation was truly interrupted by the newspaper which published information that the Tee-shirts belonged to a political party and caused sponsors to withdraw the funding,” said magistrate Dudu.

After the judgment magistrate Dudu advised the victim, Mr Severe to file a civil case so as to get his right.

Source: http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/News/Ntagazwa-freed-in-false-pretence-case/-/1840392/2050954/-/t0wlqez/-/index.html