NGO accountant robbed, driver shot in both arms

By Donald Kiirya

JINJA - Two employees of STAR EC, an NGO based in Jinja were robbed at gun point by unknown thugs as they were on their way from a bank to their offices. 

During the mid-morning Monday robbery near the chairman’s park along Bridge way, the armed thugs shot the driver in both arms with a pistol as he tried to resist with the money and later sped off using their unidentified Toyota Premio vehicle.

According to the Officer in charge CID at Jinja Police Station, George Ochola, the thugs had a pistol and an AK47 and were traveling in a Premio.

They intercepted the Land Cruiser Prado registration number UAJ 614Y, white in colour and robbed the two yet unidentified employees of STAR EC.

“There were two occupants in the Prado who included an unidentified lady who is the accountant and driver. The driver was shot in both arms and the thugs sped off leaving the lady unconscious,” Ochola said.

Majid Dhikusooka, the vice chairperson of NRM in Jinja who witnessed the robbery, said he was driving along Bridge way and came across thugs already robbing the STAR EC staff.

“I was heading in the same direction but had to stop and looked on in awe after seeing the thugs with guns but after they had left, I immediately called Apollo Kateeba, the Jinja DPC who sent in Police officers to start their search for the robbers.”

“Meanwhile I rushed and got the driver out of the Prado as he was bleeding heavily from gun shot wounds and rushed him to Jinja hospital for treatment,” Dhikusooka said.

However, while at the Out Patients department of Jinja hospital, employees of STAR EC who had already learnt of the robbery tried to block a New Vision photographer from taking photos of their fellow staff who was shot as he was being attended to by doctors but in vain.

The Kiira region police commander, Alex Twebaze, visited the scene and the injured driver in Jinja hospital.

Police detectives were called in and cordoned the scene where the Prado was left and started their investigation which included collecting of finger prints from the vehicle.

Ochola said they highly suspect that other employees in the NGO might have been behind the robbery adding that money was alleged to have been withdrawn from a bank they were yet to establish.

He cautioned staff of various NGOs to always have Police escorts whenever they go to withdraw large sums of money so that the money can reach its destination safely.

“We have been advising people many times that they must avoid carrying a large amount of without police escort,” Ochola said. However unconfirmed reports state that the thugs might have taken off with shs150m.

This is the second incident where employees of STAR EC in Jinja have been robbed of large sums of money as they are waylaid from banks. Last year a lady was robbed of unknown amounts of money.

This was the second armed robbery to happen in Jinja in two weeks.