Bar where Ugandan was killed in Turkey closed

 

 

Sunday Vision reported that Sharif Sentoogo alias Madi, 20, was reportedly hit with a whiskey bottle several times on the head by a Nigerian who owns Afro Istanbul Club, a bar in Istanbul, Turkey.

LEFT: The Nigerian bar owner who reportedly hit the Ugandan with a bottle. 

 

The Nigerian only identified as Bullet, has since been arrested together with several of his workers, including bar bouncers, as police investigations go on.

 

The bar was being managed by a one Davis Kasujja, the chairman of the Ugandan community in Turkey, who is on the run.

 

Sentoogo, who traveled to Turkey for kyeyo (odd jobs), was a casual worker in a textile factory in Istanbul.

 

 

According to witnesses, it all started when the unidentified Nigerian bar owner popularly known as Bullet asked one of his workers only identified as Fat to stay behind because she had reportedly broken a chair in the bar.

 

However, this did not go down well with Sentoogo since Fat, who is also a Uganda, was his girlfriend and they were supposed to retire back home together.

 The late Sharif Sentoogo

 "When Sentoogo tried to intervene, the Nigerian hit him with a whiskey bottle and he fell down. Shortly after, the bar bouncers came and held Sentoogo. At this point, the Nigerian hit Sentoogo again, twice on the head, and he blacked out. They locked him in one of the rooms, but later one of the bouncers lifted him, and took him back to his room, which is near the bar," narrated a witness.

 

According to a source, Turkish police have since arrested the girl (Fat) and bouncers who reportedly held Sentoogo as he was being hit.

 

According to sources in Turkey, the incident happened on the night of November 3, during a show where two Ugandan musicians; Nina Roz and Rodney Y Kabako, performed. The show was organised by Os Empire and Bigs Entertainment.

 

It is said that the incident happened shortly after the show had ended and the musicians had got off the stage. However, friends who witnessed Sentoogo being carried to his room intervened and rushed him to Samatya Education and Research Hospital in Istanbul where he was admitted in a critical condition that night.

 

Sources in Turkey further revealed that when Sentoogo was admitted, he slipped into a coma and he was put on life support machines before he was later pronounced brain dead.

 

"Doctors said that the young man was brain dead but his organs were still alive. Organs trade is a very lucrative business here," the source, who is in Turkey, revealed.

Davis Kasujja the bar manager who is on the run

 

The hospital is said to have asked for about $7,000 (about sh26m) as of last week, but the bill is still rising. "Doctors did not want to remove the organs without the approval of the parents because it is illegal here in Turkey. One can only donate organs, but not sell them," the source pointed out.

 

There are also unconfirmed reports that Ugandans in Turkey sell-off organs of there colleagues, especially those who fall sick.

 

When Sentoogo's friends contacted his father, Swaibu Kamya, who is in Uganda, the father reportedly contacted friends who advised that the matter needs investigation.

 

Kamya reported to Interpol, which referred him to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But Kamya said whereas he met with some officials at the Foreign Affairs ministry, he has not been helped. 

 

Kamya, a resident of Kawempe, said he received contradictory statements about the death of his son. "First, they told me that it was a car accident, than later, they told me he was hit with a bottle in a bar. If he was beaten in a bar, isn't there justice in Turkey?" Kamya wondered.

 

Although he has not formally allowed the tradeoff of his son's organs, Kamya said he had verbally accepted on phone to have the organs removed so that the body could be released by the hospital for burial.

 

"The Ugandans in Turkey led by there leader called Kasujja called me and told me that each day the body spends in the hospital, it would cost $2500 (sh9.2m), and that if I fail to clear the bills, they would cremate my son's body from Turkey. I got scared and I allowed them to remove the organs if that is what could ensure the return of his body. Even my friend Paul Bwambale wrote a letter accepting the removal of the organs," Kamya told Sunday Vision.

 

But Kamya has since changed his stand, and he called back his son's friends living in Turkey who he asked not to allow the tradeoff of his son's organs.

 

"I became suspicious when I asked Kasujja why they were not using the law in Turkey to hold the Nigerian bar owner responsible for the death of my son and the bills, and he (Kasujja) instead got annoyed. Yet it was Kasujja and his friends who were making incessant calls asking me to assent to the organ tradeoff," Kamya explained.

 

Kamya revealed that after he changed his stand, he received another call from a one Bashir in Turkey, who informed him that the Nigerian community there was fundraising to ensure that they clear the hospital bill so that Sentoogo's body is released and sent back to Uganda for burial.

 

Upon return, Sentoogo's remains are to be buried at his ancestral home in Luwero. Before he left for Turkey, Sentoogo was staying in Bwaise, Kawempe Division, Kampala. The third born in a family of four children, Sentoogo has survived without any child.

 

Armed with the letter written by Bwambale (Kamya's friend), sources in Turkey revealed that Kasujja contacted Amb. Steven Mubiru in Turkey, whom he attempted to convince that Sontoogo's family had consented to the organ tradeoff. But Kamya insists he has not consented.

 

Our calls and messages to the Foreign Affairs Ministry permanent secretary, Amb. Patrick Mugoya, seeking comment about the incident have not been responded to.