Two journalists from Gulu are under arrest after they tried to expose what they allege to have been sexual advances from an owner of a media outlet. The two are Jarnan Loum who works with Favor FM while the other is Willy Choowo, an Editor with Choice FM, both of them in Gulu.
A white lady named Carol Favor, the patron of Favor of God, a Christian organization that runs Favor FM employed Loum. It is claimed by Willy that the white lady was sending love messages to her employee (Loum).
Prior to his arrest, Willy had reported on his Facebook about the arrest of Loum. According to Willy’s account, Loum had been sacked by the FM Station after he stormed out of a meeting convened by the Management whose proceedings he did not agree with.
“The meeting was to persuade Janan to drop the legal case he was pursuing over sexual harassment at the work place, he was hesitant and walked out of the meeting,” Willy wrote on his Facebook.
Willy stated in the post that Janan had subsequently been fired due to what his boss (Carol Favor) termed as immorality practice.
He further shared a screen shot of some of the messages that Loum had received from the boss.
The message seems to demand for love. A string of persistent texts in a WhatsApp conversation ask “How strong really is your love for me and is it truly single hearted?” But there is no evidence to prove the persons between whom the conversation was held.
Loum becomes the fourth staff to be sent home just within a period of two months, according to Willy. He also said that at the time of his dismissal from his job, the organization owned Loum three months in unpaid salary.
The Aswa regional Police Spokesman, Jimmy Patrick Okema told one of the online media outlets that Willy is facing cyber crime related charges and that Loum was reported to Police for failing to return the property of his former employer.
However, Willy in his Facebook post stated that Loum while in police custody had told him that he handed over all property belonging to his employer, except a laptop that he had been gifted.
When contacted for details regarding the offences and where the suspects are currently held, the DPC for Gulu told SoftPower News that the cases are now being handled by CID headquarters in Gulu, and referred us to Vincent Ssekate the CID Spokesperson. We were however told that Willy and Loum have since been transfered from Gulu to Kampala.
Efforts to reach Ssekate on phone were futile as he could not take our calls.
