UPDF, Police foil fuel station robbery in Mayuge

Police together with the army have arrested seven armed robbers that raided a fuel station in the wee hours of Tuesday morning in Mayuge district.

In the night raid, the suspected armed robbers tied up a private security guard and two pump attendants and beat them up, according to the Police.

The private guard whose firearm was confiscated by the robbers has been identified as Bradson Okello, attached Centurian Security Company.

A preliminary Police report seen by New Vision said "They robbed the gun from him (Okello) - an SAR rifle UG PSO W0817 with four rounds of ammunition, and sh1m among other items from the station."

According to the report, Police and the army officers attached to Magamaga Cantonment Barracks quickly responded to the incident. They exchanged gunfire but nobody was hurt. The rifle belonging to Okello was recovered.

"A total of seven suspects were arrested and housebreaking implements recovered as well," the Police report read in part. The suspects have been detained at Mayuge Police Station pending ongoing investigations.

Report

The 2019 annual crime report indicated that a total of 6,761 cases of robbery were reported, compared to 7,354 cases in 2018 resulting in an 8% decrease.

Cases of robbery (where lethal weapons were not used) were 4,428, while cases of aggravated robbery (where lethal weapons were used e.g. firearms, knives hammer, and machetes, etc.) were 2,333.

Kampala Metropolitan Police (KMP) north region (Kawempe division) registered the highest number of robbery cases with 634, followed by KMP South (Makindye division) with 549 cases and KMP East with 519 cases.

District/Divisions with the highest number of cases were Arua with 276 cases, followed by Lira with 211 cases and Mbarara with 209 cases.