Jinja passengers stripped

By Moses Nampala Five Armed thugs on Sunday night staged an illegal roadblock on the Jinja-Kamuli highway and robbed over 24 travellers of an unspecified amount of money and nine mobile phones. Three of the victims were stripped naked during the robbery. The Jinja Police CID officer, Yolamu Mbabazi, confirmed the incident. He told the new Vision on Monday that the thugs reportedly instructed all passengers carrying mobile phones to surrender them before the victims could be searched. Mbabazi could not readily identify the registration numbers of the commuters that fall prey to the thugs. He said the drivers of the commuters had not yet reported to Jinja Central Police Station. He said one of the victims, Fred Mbagandi, a student at Makerere University, said they were headed for Kamuli from Jinja, when the driver stopped their vehicle upon seeing tree logs laid across the road. Mbabazi said the thugs emerged from the dark and ordered the passengers out of the vehicle before beating them. Moses Magala and two other passengers, who survived the robbery with bodily injuries, told The new Vision they were stripped naked. “During the robbery, three of us had little to offer that the thugs thought that we had hidden money in our pants. We were severely beaten and ordered to undress,” Magala said. He added, “We earned a thorough beating when the thugs realised that even after stripping we had nothing to offer.” Mbabazi said highway patrols had been intensified. “We are tracing clues of these thugs,” he said.