10 held over theft of bitumen

The Police in Kagadi are holding 10 men on allegations of breaking into the quarry centre of Shengli engineering construction group.

The centre is located in Mabaale town council, Kagadi district.They are accused of stealing 25 drums of bitumen, material used for road surfacing and roofing.

The company was contracted to upgrade the 101km Kabwoya-Kagadi-Kyenjojo road in October 2015, but actual work began in April the following year.

The district Police commander, Stephen Kamar, said he was informed by Shengli that some unidentified people were found loading bitumen onto their truck at about 3:00am on Monday, without the knowledge of the company management.

Kamar said the Police, in a joint operation with the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF), impounded the Fuso truck that had 25 drums full of bitumen."We found a box-body truck at the Shengli site and it was locked.

When we discovered that some people were inside, we forced it open and eight people were found inside with the drums," Kamar said.Edward Tibenda, the LC1 chairperson for Kitemuzi west in Mabaale town council, said he was informed by the management of Shengli that some people had been arrested at their premises, with drums of bitumen.

He said the people who were found in the truck were not residents of the area.

The suspects said they are casual labourers operating at Kabwoya trading centre. One of them said the owner of the truck asked them to do some work for him at about 1:00am.

He said they were taken to the site and asked to load the drums. He said after loading the drums onto the truck, they were again locked inside. Godwin Tashobya, the public relations officer of Shengli, said they have been getting reports of people stealing bitumen, until they were tipped off by security of a planned theft of bitumen.

The suspects were apprehended.Tashobya said the stolen bitumen is valued at sh25m. He said the theft of such items is curtailing the progress of the project."The bitumen takes at least three months to be shipped into the country and when people steal such products, it derails the timely implementation of the project," Tashobya said.He said some staff of Shengli had also been arrested over the theft.

Tashobya asked the public to report anyone involved in such acts, so that they are prosecuted.The contract for civil works commenced on April 5, 2016 and was scheduled to be completed on April 4 last year, but was extended.Kamar said the suspects will be charged with theft and criminal trespass.

He said investigations into the matter are still ongoing.