Joseph Mutebi, a third-year law student at Uganda Christian University (UCU) is currently under police detention for allegedly fleecing money from a city church pastor pretending to offer him a license to issue wedding certificates.
More details coming in indicate that Mutebi was nabbed on 15th April for allegedly conning Pastor Eugene Emilly Nsamba of UGX 1.5 million.
Police says that earlier this year, Nsamba was advised by one Kayongo (a friend) to get a marriage license for his church known as Cornerstone Victors Mission Church, and went ahead to suggest Mutebi as the solution.
According to police, the duo scheduled a meeting with Mutebi in Wakiso district on March 13th where they finalized the deal. As part of the arrangement, Nsamba submitted photos of his church and approved the payment of 1.5 million shillings in batches for the certification, gazetting and printing of marriage registration books.
Apparently, Mutebi promised to deliver the marriage license to Nsamba’s church last month and the gazette notice earlier this month. After receiving the two documents, Nsamba decided to examine them critically only to realize that the gazette was poor quality while the license lacked the minister’s seal.
The Pastor later consulted Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) and learned that his church shared the general notice number with another church named Way and Truth Healing Ministries. A letter from the Uganda Printing and Publication Corporation (UPPC) also confirmed that the certificate was fake.
“The effect is that whatever Mutebi was dealing in was hot air and unfortunately, he cleared them and they all went ahead and did their activities like celebrating marriages” says Vincent Katutsi, URSB’s Director of Civil Registration