Six arrested for stealing government equipment

Apr 06, 2019

A generator, a crane and batteries of the newly acquired grader from the works ministry constitute the missing equipment.

CRIME | THEFT

KABAROLE - The Police in Fort Portal have arrested six workers of Kabarole district local government for stealing government equipment.

The suspects were arrested Friday evening following after a whistle blower informed the Resident District Commissioner, Stephen Asiimwe, that some equipment had gone missing at the district headquarters in Kitumba.

Asiimwe said he received information that a generator, a crane and batteries of the newly acquired grader from the works ministry where missing.

"When I got the information I contacted the police to start investigating and it was established that the six had connived to steal the equipment.'' Asiimwe said.

The suspects were identified as Road engineers; Naome Kamwaka and Steven Rwakatama, Karim Nyabongo Abdul a driver, Solom Musana a machine operator, Kabul Yasin and Victor Jeremiah both workers in the engineering department.

"We are investigating the officials because it is very bad. They are the ones who are supposed to protect government equipment but they have started stealing it."Asiimwe said.

He said that most roads in the district are in bad state while the equipment provided to the district by the government is idle at the district headquarters.

Lydia Tumushabe the Rwenzori East regional police spokesperson confirmed that arrest of the six officials and said that police had started investigating them.

"It's true we have arrested the two district roads engineers and four of their staff and charged them with theft of government property." Tumushabe said.

She added that the six suspects will be arraigned in court to face theft charges after police investigations.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});