City girl arrested over Nagirinya murder

Fortune Mugisha Ayebare popularly known on social media as Fortune Lindah who went missing on Tuesday night from Shell Kireka is in police custody helping them with the investigation of the kidnap and murder of Maria Nagirinya, and her driver Ronald Kitayimbwa.

Nagirinya who was a Social Worker with the Community Integrated Development Initiative (CIDI) and her driver Kitayimbwa were abducted on August 28, 2019, and later found murdered on Friday, August 30 and their bodies dumped in Nabutiti village Nama sub-county in Mukono district.

Senior security sources told the New Vision that the joint investigation team of Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI, Internal Security Organisation and Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) arrested her on Tuesday night in connection with the case.

Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, Patrick Onyango, confirmed Ayebare was in police custody.

"Yes it's true she was arrested but I am not privy to why she was arrested but the officer who picked her up notified the police and we have informed her parents of her detention," Onyango stated.

Onyango was responding to social media posts from her friends indicating she had gone "missing on Tuesday night from Kireka shell. Whoever can get to her whereabouts please notify police," the post indicated.

New Vision has learnt that Security arrested her after details emerged she was among the last people seen with the deceased shortly before she was killed. She was later driven to Katwe where the case is being handled before being whisked away to an unknown place.

On Thursday, the detective handling the case was yet to make any major breakthrough even though they had recorded statements from her parents, relatives friends, and husband. 

Monday Johnson the Commissioner of Police in charge of Homicide confirmed they had recorded statements and that a multiagency team of the detectives and intelligence operatives was handling the matter.

"We have recorded statements from the husbands and staff from CIDI. There are some leads that are coming out which we intend to develop further," Monday noted.

The development comes in the wake of a Tuesday Press conference where the deputy police spokesperson, Polly Namaye released the CCTV footage showing Nagirinya's car a Spacio registration number UBA 570V being driven by one of the kidnappers.

In a statement, Police stated, "The images have been retrieved from an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) camera and one can clearly see from these pictures that the assailant is wearing a white shirt, a reddish coat and a cap on his head. He is of a dark skin complexion," Namaye said while releasing the footage.

The police further stated,  "This is, therefore, to appeal to members of the public and to any other person(s) who have useful information leading to the arrest of this suspect in the pictures to contact the nearest police station or call the telephone numbers provided, 0714667793/ 0714668079/0714668105or toll free 0800909990/ 800121222"

The Inspector-General of Police also announced an unspecified reward for a person who will identify the person seen driving Nagirinya's car.