APOLOGY TO OUR READERS

On Saturday August 3, 2019, we published a story titled: "City Musician kidnapped, tortured, eye plucked out", in which, among other things, it was reported that a member of the Fire Base crew, Michael Alinda, commonly known as Zigy Wine, was reportedly abducted while on his way to Kamwokya on July 21 but later found dumped at Mulago Hospital with his eyes plucked out and two fingers cut off.

We have since established from the Police that in fact Alinda aka Zigy Wine was injured in a motorcycle accident and later died as a result of injuries he sustained. We apologise to the public for the inaccurate information and take responsibility for any adverse inconvenience that our reporting may have caused.

A number of questions have been raised about whether we exercised due diligence and professionalism in reporting this story. We feel obliged to explain the circumstances that led to the story.

On Thursday morning, August 1, 2019, a person claiming to be a relative informed us that Zigy Wine, who had been missing for a week, had been found at Mulago Hospital with his eye plucked out and two fingers missing.

According to other family members, Zigy was supposed to attend a family meeting a week earlier but did not and that his phones had been off since then. We were unable to get official comment from Mulago, but a health worker at the hospital explained that indeed Zigy Wine was there in an appalling state as described by the family. Subsequently, our reporter managed to trace Zigy in hospital and took pictures.

Furthermore, the family claimed they believed Zigy had been kidnapped and that they were receiving threatening calls from anonymous callers. When we contacted the Police, the Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, Patrick Onyango, promised to cross-check the violence against Zigy and the kidnap claims by the relatives.

When we later called the spokesman to follow up on the story, he did not respond. He later explained that they hadn't registered any complaint from the family.

Once again we apologise. New Vision strives to be accurate and professional.