Envoy 'stole embassy funds'

KAMPALA - Uganda's High Commissioner to Nigeria, James Juuko, has disappeared with government money earmarked for a new embassy in Abuja, Uganda's Foreign Minister, Paul Ssemogerere, said.

The new embassy was allocated 343.7 million Ugandan shillings ( pounds 2.2m). Mr Ssemogerere told parliament on Thursday that Mr Juuko had put the funds in several foreign bank accounts. The official New Vision newspaper said yesterday that Mr Juuko, who had just been transferred from New Delhi to Lagos, and been charged with building the new embassy, had absconded with an estimated pounds 250,000.