DCEC Pounces CMB Chief Executive Officer

  • DCEC locks up Okaile’s wife
  • Attorney Kanjabanga secures her freedom at 1am
  • Personal and business vehicles impounded
  • Okaile surrenders his business contracts

SONNY SERITE

The Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) pounced on the embattled Capital Management Botswana (CMB) Chief Executive Officer Rapula Okaile over the weekend, impounding all his personal and business vehicles.
According to information gathered by this publication, DCEC officials arrested Okaile’s wife on Friday while he was in South Africa. She was released on Saturday morning following which her Range Rover SUV and Okaile’s two Land Cruisers, a company (CMB) van and a tipper truck were impounded.
Okaile was reportedly forced to make a hasty return to Gaborone on Sunday as DCEC officials hinted that they were going to his cattle post at Pitseng in the Southern district to confiscate more of his property which forms part of assets they want to prove are proceeds of ill-gotten money in the investigations they are currently pursuing against he and his company. The Botswana Gazette can also confirm that Okaile surrendered contracts of his trucking business to the DCEC on Monday in a deal meant to halt the corruption busting organisation from impounding the trucks.
CMB is currently embroiled in a bitter legal battle with the Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF) which is demanding to recover P477 million in assets and cash from CMB following the termination of a private equity investments contract between the two parties.
The BPOPF is also alleged to have resolved to report its Chairman Carter Morupisi, who is also Permanent Secretary to the President to the DCEC following allegations that he has a “beneficial interest’’ through Okaile in CMB.
Okaile’s lawyer Gabriel Kanjabanga confirmed the detention of Okaile’s wife in an interview Monday evening. Kanjabanga expressed his displeasure at the way DCEC officials ill-treated Okaile’s wife by detaining her while refusing her access to her lawyers and family. ‘‘It is sickening that DCEC goes around making arbitrary arrests on innocent citizens who have absolutely nothing to do with the cases they are investigating’’, Kanjabanga said furiously. He said Okaile’s wife is not a shareholder or Director in the companies that are being investigated. ‘‘How do you arrest the wife and say you are not going to release her until the husband surrenders himself’’, Kanjabanga exclaimed. He said he had to appear before High Court Judge Busang who granted the release order at 1am and the DCEC only released his client from Mogoditshane police holding cells at 4am. Kanjabanga said it was very worrisome that a State organ like the DCEC find nothing wrong with trampling on people’s fundamental rights.