Wanted gangsters arrested in city

Wednesday, 28th May, 2008
The weapons recovered
from the suspects
across the country,
with a logbook (foreground)
for a stolen car



By Steven Candia

The Rapid Response Unit of the Police has arrested 11 suspected criminals and recovered four guns in an ongoing operation to curb the wave of armed crime in the country, reports The New Vision.

Three stolen vehicles, 89 bullets, two machetes, a knife and a stick grenade were seized in the two-week-long crackdown countrywide.

Four of the suspects were arrested in Kampala, three in the eastern district of Bukedea, three in Wakiso and one in Mbarara in the west.

The Kampala suspects were caught in the suburb of Kyaliwajala, in possession of an AK 47 and a stick grenade, the Police said.

“They are the ones who have been terrorising Kampala and spreading terror to
nearby places,”

Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba said at a press conference at the crack unit’s headquarters in Kireka yesterday.

She identified the suspects as Alhaj Hassan Mutyaba, Charles Lukulya, Geoffrey Akior, alias Vincent Alele, and Alhaj Hassan Zubair, a UPDF deserter, who was in the possession of the grenade.

The suspects arrested in connection with a gun recovered in Bukedea are Alfred Emokor, Nathan Adome and Hassan Adome.

The Police said the three were responsible for extending crime from Bukedea through Mbale to Jinja, using the firearm in robbery missions and theft of cattle.

At the time of their capture, they had 25 rounds of ammunition. A double grip AK47 was recovered in Nkoma village in Mbale district from thugs in flight.

Commandant David Magara said the suspects abandoned the firearm in an incomplete building and fled, with operatives hot on their heels.

He identified them as Hussein Nkalubo and Moses Mudoola, all with past criminal records. “We had arrested them some time back and took them to the General Court Martial.

They served their sentences and were released,” he said.

The three arrested in Wakiso, Henry Serugo, Ronald Magala and Stephen Ssekaja, are accused of having hacked and robbed a couple in the area, using a firearm which they had grabbed earlier from a private security guard outside a bar in Nabbingo.

“They used the firearm to rob Daniel Sebuma
and his wife, whom they cut with pangas and knives before robbing other items
that included two mobile phones of
which we traced one,” Nabakooba said.

The Police described the last suspect, Edward Nuwatamba Bamulobeka, as a man with a bag of tricks.

He was responsible for the theft of three vehicles in western Uganda, which were later recovered in Lira, the Police said.

All the suspects were paraded before the press.

There has been an upsurge in crime in Kampala and other parts of the country, with criminal gangs carrying out armed robberies, killing and raping their victims in some cases.

The most recent incident was the shooting and carjacking of a UPDF colonel in Rubaga, a Kampala city suburb, on Monday night.