8 arrested over murder of sheikh Mutumba

Muslims led by the regional khadi Busoga, Sheikh Hussein Bowa at the burial of Sheikh Mutumba. Photo by Moses Bikala

MURDER

The Police in Bugiri are holding eight people in connection with the murder of Sheikh Masuudi Mutumba, the imam of Masjid Noor Iwemba. 

Mutumba was gunned down at his home on Friday 14 at at around 9:00pm by a man dressed in a black overall coat.

According to the son of the deceased, Musa Kanaabe, who  witnessed his father being shot dead, the attacker first rang his father who was seated on a plastic chair inside the house waiting to be served supper.

Kanaabe said his father moved outside in order to get a clear signal of the network, but was shocked to hear gunshots a moment later. He said the attacker followed his father and shot him in the ear, leaving him lying in a pool of blood.

Kanaabe, 14, said he and two of his sisters, hidden in one of the corners of their sitting room, watched helplessly as the attacker kicked the deceased twice on the head before moving outside. The regional police commander Busoga east, John Katungwensi, said security personnel had also recovered vital clues that would help track down the people responsible for the murder.

Katungwensi, however, appealed to locals with information that could help track down the people responsible for the murder volunteer it to police or local council officials secretly. He said the attackers could be residents of the area since they could easily indentify the deceased and called him by names.

Katungwensi said the murderer could have first trailed the deceased right from the mosque where he had conducted the 8:00pm prayers to his home before shooting him dead.

He declined to reveal the identities of the eight suspects, saying it would jeopardize the investigations.

However a police source said one of the suspects is a boda boda cyclist who was sighted directing the murderer who was travelling in an ipsum vehicle that had parked a distance away from the scene of crime to Bugiri town.

The deputy resident district commissioner Bugiri, Hajji Sadiq Kabanda, urged locals to remain calm avoid taking the law into their hands as police conducts its investigations. He said some people are already moving around claiming the deceased was murdered as a result of a land wrangles without providing proof.

"We want anyone with proof that the deceased was murdered as a result of land wrangles to come out and give us that information, " he said.