Kicukiro Primary Court has denied bail to Emmanuel Nibishaka, the deputy Chief Executive Officer of Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), and sent him on a 30-day remand. Nibishaka who was not present in the court during the bail ruling, is pinned on two charges of fraud and using forged documents. During the hearing which was held on June 2, Nibishaka admitted all the crimes and explained how he did it. The documents in question include a forged travel clearance he used to travel to Kenya and invitations as well as emails he used to scam people whom he promised to help their children get US visas. During the ruling held on June 7, the presiding judge resolved to remand him arguing that there are reasonable grounds to suspect him and he might escape justice like he did before his arrest. The bail ruling started around 2:45 PM with a panel of one judge and a court registrar. How he committed the alleged crimes The judge immediately mentioned the case and took the audience through the previous proceedings detailing how the alleged crimes were committed, as pleaded by the defendant. It was mentioned that on various occasions since September last year, Nibishaka collected about $ 21,800 approximately Rwf22,421,300 from different people with a promise to help them get visas to the US for studies. In addition, he forged the invitation which invited them to meetings in the US as well as emails using another persons account. The defendant also altered the date and destination of a previous travel clearance and used it to travel to Kenya, allegedly after getting wind of the criminal case against him. Usually, the senior civil servants are required to seek authorisation from the Prime Minister before traveling out of the country. Nibishaka during the hearing, admitted all the charges arguing that he didn’t come to defend himself, but to apologize and requested to be granted bail for him to be able to refund the victims. In addition, the judge disclosed that Nibishaka explained that those people wanted help from him because they knew others he had helped, partly because he had previously lived in the US. The court ruled to remand him as further investigation continue. Nibishaka was arrested on May 21 and his case was submitted to the National Public Prosecution Authority on May 26.
