Kampala — Following his suspension, Uganda Muslim Supreme Council national chairman, Hajji Ali Mohammed Adrama has said the actual thieves in the council are instead using him as a sacrificial lamb.

"The Joint Session has no powers to suspend me but I am not going to challenge it because I have no interest. I will be happy to leave UMSC because it is full of thieves," Adrama said.

Adrama has been the chairman of the UMSC until his suspension yesterday by the Joint Session, which comprises executive members and a College of sheikhs. He was consequently replaced by the vice chairman Hassan Bassajjabalaba.

Speaking to Daily Monitor in a telephone interview yesterday, Adrama argued against his suspension, saying it is illegal and unfair.

"I was suspended because I did not support them in the illegal sale of Muslim properties; Plots 30 and 102 on William Street. They said I am a traitor who does not support them," Adrama said.

He said he could not support them because "those sales were satanic." Adrama said he was accused of not respecting sheikhs by accusing Mufti Ramathan Mubajje of selling Muslim properties. Adrama, who was recommended for strong caution by the probe committee into the illegal sale of Muslim properties, told Daily Monitor that the Joint Session urged him to admit that the signature appearing on the transfer forms for the properties was his.

"They wanted me to accept that [Hassan] Bassajjabalaba's signature is mine but I am not going to do that," Adrama said defiantly.

Adrama says his dismissal was illegal.

However, he said he was not ready to challenge it.

However, UMSC says Adrama's suspension is within the law.

"The Joint Session suspended him according to Article 9 of the UMSC Constitution. He swore an affidavit that his signature was forged yet he was absent and therefore, the vice chairman signed in his capacity," Hajji Nsereko Mutumba, UMSC spokesman told Daily Monitor yesterday.

Other reasons, according to Mutumba for Adrama's suspension include his going against the UMSC executive understanding of not publishing anything concerning the report in the media.

"He wrote in the Red Pepper that his signature was forged, he also wrote to the President distancing himself from the property deals," Mutumba said.