Arua man hangs 2 sons, reports self to police

By Richard Drasimaku      

Police in Arua district are holding a man who hanged his two sons last night and reported himself to the police early in the morning.

Abdullah Jamal, 25, a resident of Tanganyika central village in Dadamu Sub County stormed Arua central police station at 6:25am to shock the officers with the news of his brutal act.

Alex Afemia, the acting Criminal Investigations Department boss said he immediately rushed to the scene with another detective only to find two dead bodies of the children on Jamal’s mattress and a rope tied to the roof of his grass thatched house hanging above.

He identified the slain as Enoch, 5 and his three- year old follower Osman Bayyo.

The bodies were taken to Arua hospital mortuary for postmortem while Jamal was by press time due for medical examination to ascertain his mental status.

He, in a preliminary interrogation told police that the mother of his the two children died in 2005.

Since then the children have been staying with their grandfather Abdullah Asiki whose wife is said to have mistreated them.

Jamal claimed that when he brought the issue of the torture to his father, he instead abused him.

“I decided to bring the children to stay with me but life became difficult. So because I didn’t want to see the kids suffer, at night I thought of the idea to end their lives,” Jamal was quoted to have said.

Afemia said intelligence information has revealed that Jamal, a broker/driver at Logiri stage at Arua Taxi Park has been smokes marijuana.

“Although we have tentatively considered the cause of the killings to be domestic violence, it could be the effect of the marijuana which could have made him to take such uncoordinated decisions,” he said.

“It is unfortunate that the lives of innocent children who could be of help to this country in future have been tragically lost.

Domestic misunderstandings should be settled amicably or by seeking assistance from the police,” he added.