Police smoke robbers out of Lugazi plantation

BY NICHOLAS KAJOBA POLICE yesterday set fire on the Sugar Corporation of Uganda Limited (SCOUL), sugar plantations in Lugazi as they pursued three armed thugs who had earlier robbed passengers on a Kampala-bound taxi from Jinja.The robbers had boarded the taxi posing as passengers but turned against the other travellers at Kitega village near Lugazi town where they held the driver at gunpoint and robbed the passengers.The gangsters then disappeared into the sugar plantation with their unspecified amount of loot at about 1:00pm. Working on a tip off, Police, assisted by their dogs and plain-clothes security men rushed to the scene and ringed off the place. They sealed off several blocks of sugarcane and set fire to three acres of cane. The thugs were believed to be armed with rifle guns and a pistol and were still believed to be hiding in the plantation. Gunshots fired by the thugs were heard in the plantations. Residents in the area took to their heels as shots intensified.Mukono, District Police Commander (DPC), Martin Abiru, yesterday confirmed the incident but preferred not to comment saying it is still too early. “We are still on an operation of pursuing thugs, I will comment later,” Abiru said. However SCOUL’s chief executive, Mr. C. S Khanna, told The New vision that he was not aware of the incident.“Am not aware of the incidence, but that is too bad if we loose three blocks of sugarcane,” he said.The incident follows an early report in which two thugs were shot at Kikkati village near Lugazi town as they attempted to rob passengers.