By Steven Candia
and Gerald Kawemba
HE was charged with maintaining law and order, but instead fanned insecurity. The Police yesterday paraded Corporal Nangai Abdalla, among several armed robbery suspects.
Nangai, the officer-in-charge of Kikooge Police post, Nakasongola district was arrested for allegedly hiring out a Police rifle to thugs, one of them a private in the UPDF to rob residents.
Deputy Police spokesperson Vincent Ssekate yesterday said Nangai was arrested near Masindi post, about a week after he had fled his post to escape arrest upon learning that the Police had bust the robbers.
The Police flushed him from his father-in-law’s home. Nangai, Ssekate said was arrested with two other suspects, Private Godfrey Luyiga and his brother Ali Kimeze.
The Police said Nangai allegedly hired out the gun to the two who fled with the rifle until June 14, when their luck ran out. “He would hire the gun to them for robbery and they would share the proceeds,†Ssekate said at the Rapid Response Unit offices in Kireka.
Nangai first reportedly began working with the thugs on April 20 after Luyiga, who was attached to the 69 Battalion in Kasese district, sold him the idea. Four days later, Nangai reportedly hired out a rifle to Luyiga, who executed a sh0.5m robbery in Nakiroma village, but did not give him anything. “They claimed that the mission aborted and so there was nothing to share,†Ssekate said.
Two days later, the duo reportedly returned to Nangai, who lent out the firearm, which was never returned. The thugs are said to have executed a string of robberies, grabbing sh3m from a shopkeeper in Kikooge and another sh0.4m from Mathias Bakombi.
However, luck ran out on Luyiga and Kimeze on June 14 after a string of robberies in Kachwampere trading centre in which they looted over sh18m. Luyiga was arrested by the residents while he was posing as a fisherman, leading to the arrests of Kimeze and Nangai upon interrogation.
Ssekate said the trio would be charged in the martial court with aggravated robbery and Nangai additionally with failure to protect a gun.
