For the sixth time, the Serere district Magistrate’s Court, has adjourned a hearing of a case in which a minister’s brother was assaulted and harmed by an assumed neighbour.
Chief Magistrate Margaret Aanyu adjourned Court to April 4, 2023, to hear if a proposed Out-of-Court settlement will be in the offing. During a February 24, 2023 hearing, Aanyu said: “If they will have reached a settlement, well and good.”
But the alleged victim of the assault, Mr. Joel Omusei, averred that nobody had, or, was mandated to speak for him on the matter. “I am an adult; nobody speaks for and talks on my behalf. I am not aware that there is an attempt to have a settlement out of court,” he noted.
The facts of the case are that on October 16, 2022, in the environs of Serere Town Council, and at around One o’clock, after mid-night, Mr. Richard Egeru Aomu, attacked Omusei and another with a grass slasher at his (Aomu’s) home.
The duo of Omusei and a boda boda rider, who had been giving Omusei a lift, had gone to Mr. Martin Oenen, a medical officer at Halcyon High School – Serere Campus, who rents a detached building at Aomu’s home.
It is alleged that Omusei had gone to Oenen to seek medical attention for some illness. So, in the wee hours, Aomu, suspecting unwanted intruders in his home, attacked Omusei, causing him bodily harm. In Court, Omusei showed a still- bandaged hand that was the result of the attack, as he tried to ward off the grass slasher. No other injuries were evident in Court.
The underlying substance of this infraction is that Omusei is a director of the Halcyon High School, Serere Annex, of the renowned Halcyon High School, the main campus, by Soroti City.
Earlier, court had heard that Omusei had gone to Oenen seeking medical attention. Oenen works for the Serere Halcyon Secondary School, attending to students.
When Chief Magistrate Aanyu, asked Aomu if he was contrite of his action and willing to settle the matter, Aomu said: “I want to talk to him (Omusei) and settle the matter.” So far, nothing has come out of this settlement desire. There has been unconfirmed talk of figures of shillings touted between fifteen to thirty-five million, that the case could be settled by Aomu paying Omusei. Nothing concrete is forthcoming of this.
Unconfirmed suspicion is that Halcyon School Annex is in an expansion drive, and that Aomu’s land which is adjacent to it would be ideal for this. Omusei is one of the siblings of Ms. Hellen Adoa, the owner of the Halcyon schools.
A recent expansion drive saw Halcyon acquire Sunrise Secondary School, in the neighbouring township of Brooks corner, Ocaapa. Sunrise Secondary School had originally belonged to Mr. Justin Olupot. Adoa acquired it when Olupot failed to raise the money for which the school had been mortgaged. Adoa settled the mortgage, acquired and renamed the school; Halcyon.
