Stolen child dies, exhumed
Sep 27, 2011
THE Police on Saturday exhumed a body believed to be of a child stolen from Oraba trading centre on the Uganda-South Sudan border two weeks ago.
By Richard Drasimaku
THE Police on Saturday exhumed a body believed to be of a child stolen from Oraba trading centre on the Uganda-South Sudan border two weeks ago.
The three-month-old child, Thomas Sabuti, disappeared on September 11, while the mother, Knight Alai, was selling tea to night travellers in the trading centre.
The body was discovered in Abira village, Onzivu parish, Vurra county in Arua district, a day after it was buried.
Koboko district criminal investigations officer Francis Olugu led the search.
Maureen Atiboru and Ratib Amaku were arrested in connection with the child’s disappearance and death.
According to the Police, Atiboru, 27, was also a tea vendor at the market. She is suspected to have taken the baby at around 5:00am when the child’s mother went to ease herself.
Atiboru, who has reportedly confessed to stealing the child, trekked the whole day to Koboko town, where she boarded a taxi to Arua.
From Arua, Atiboru reportedly boarded a bus to Karuma on the Arua-Kampala highway where Amaku (her lover) stays.
Atiboru reportedly told Amaku that the baby was theirs, but she continuously fed him on bottled milk.
She reportedly said the baby fell ill, got weak and died. The two informed Amaku’s family in Arua that their child had died and that they had hired a taxi to take the body to Arua.
Being a Muslim family, they arrived when a grave had already been prepared and the child was quickly buried.
It is from the burial place where plain-clothes detectives nabbed the suspects when the family was waiting for the arrival of Atiboru’s relatives.
THE Police on Saturday exhumed a body believed to be of a child stolen from Oraba trading centre on the Uganda-South Sudan border two weeks ago.
The three-month-old child, Thomas Sabuti, disappeared on September 11, while the mother, Knight Alai, was selling tea to night travellers in the trading centre.
The body was discovered in Abira village, Onzivu parish, Vurra county in Arua district, a day after it was buried.
Koboko district criminal investigations officer Francis Olugu led the search.
Maureen Atiboru and Ratib Amaku were arrested in connection with the child’s disappearance and death.
According to the Police, Atiboru, 27, was also a tea vendor at the market. She is suspected to have taken the baby at around 5:00am when the child’s mother went to ease herself.
Atiboru, who has reportedly confessed to stealing the child, trekked the whole day to Koboko town, where she boarded a taxi to Arua.
From Arua, Atiboru reportedly boarded a bus to Karuma on the Arua-Kampala highway where Amaku (her lover) stays.
Atiboru reportedly told Amaku that the baby was theirs, but she continuously fed him on bottled milk.
She reportedly said the baby fell ill, got weak and died. The two informed Amaku’s family in Arua that their child had died and that they had hired a taxi to take the body to Arua.
Being a Muslim family, they arrived when a grave had already been prepared and the child was quickly buried.
It is from the burial place where plain-clothes detectives nabbed the suspects when the family was waiting for the arrival of Atiboru’s relatives.