KAMPALA – Pastor Augustine Yiga will have to spend the next three weeks behind bars after court rejected his second bail application.
Pastor Yiga of Revival Church, Kawaala in Rubaga Division has since March 28 been on remand at Kitalya Government Prison for allegedly uttering false information in relation to the deadly COVID-19.
On Thursday, April 16, his lawyer Wilber Kayiwa appeared before Mwanga II Magistrate’s Court, seeking bail, having failed on the second attempt on April 7.
But Grade One Magistrate Timothy Lumunye dismissed Pastor Yiga’s bail application, arguing that the sureties are not substantial.
“No evidence of medical proof have been presented to show that the applicant is suffering from diabetes and the fact that the country is full of news about the wide spread of COVID-19, which has created significant anxiety, stress, financial difficulty and lockdown following President Museveni and government officials’ plan to keep the public safe. Pastor Yiga should remain where he is as per the directive issued by the president on Tuesday,” Magistrate Lumunye held.
He remanded Pastor Yiga until May 5 this year.
The magistrate also held that the sureties presented are junior ministers in his church who cannot prevail over him to attend court.
The Court ruled that Pastor Yiga’s bail application shall be considered in future when circumstances have changed.
Prosecution alleges that on March 27 this year at Revival Christian Church, Kawaala in Kampala District while appearing before BBS, Spark, NBS, and Sanyuka television cameras, Pastor Yiga uttered words which were broadcast to wit, ‘there is no Coronavirus in Uganda and Africa’ knowing or having reason to believe that it is likely to spread the infection of Coronavirus disease dangerous to life.
He coined his argument on the fact that no single death had been declared in a number of African countries, yet in the west, nations that were battling the disease had lost lives in hundreds.
Pastor argued that coronavirus is just flu which has been already existing on the continent.
