Trader cheats death in taxi robbery

By Ssennabulya Baagalayina

A trader cheated death when thugs moving in a taxi doused him with chloroform, beat him up when he put up a fight and dumped him on Masaka road, leaving him for dead.

Farouk Taabalamule, 45, a resident of Kasenge- Nakawuka in Wakiso on Wednesday night retired for the night from his work place in Kisenyi and boarded a taxi. Little did he know he had just entered a den of thugs!

Immediately he settled into the taxi he was doused with chloroform; however, being a big man in stature, he put up a fight but was subdued by the thugs before they robbed him of two mobile phones and an unspecified amount of money.

Taabalamule was found passed out at the roadside in Mukoko on Masaka road by a police highway patrol Pick up that was doing rounds. Policemen woke him up but he was still dazed and could not walk by himself.

Hardly able to fully recollect the events that had led him to his predicament, he was rushed  to Mukwano Clinic where he was treated. His right eye was swollen from the thugs' ruthless beating and he had wetted his trousers.

He said he did not know the amount of money the thugs had taken because he always counts the day's proceeds when he gets home.

The Lukaya police boss, ASP Moses Bwire said they got him a vehicle that took him back to Kampala.

Taabalamule's case however is one of the few in which a victim has come out alive. Thugs have recently taken on robbing passengers in taxis with many of their victims not surviving their ordeals especially if they put up a fight.

One such case was of Thomas Pere, a Vision Group journalist who was mauled by thugs on June 16 after he boarded a vehicle with valuables. His body was found dumped in a trench on Busabala Road.