By our reporter
The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kale Kayihura has revealed that Police has made a breakthrough in restoring order in Greater Masaka region after arresting machete wielding goons’ leader following the recent Bukomansimbi attacks.
Addressing a press briefing at Kisojjo Village; one of the affected villages in Kibinge Sub County, Bukomansimbi District on Monday evening, Gen Kayihura, identified the alleged ringleader as Musa Ggaliwango; who according to him had for long been on police’s wanted list over deadly crimes in the area.
The IGP explained that Ggaliwango was arrested alongside three of his accomplices with whom they have been raiding communities in Masaka Sub-region.
Gen Kayihura said Ggaliwango and his accomplices are some of the suspects who were earlier arrested and taken to court but later released on bail over murder and cases of aggravated robbery. The IGP said they regrouped and started terrorising residents.
According to the IGP, some of the victims have been able to identify the suspects who accordingly appeared before Masaka chief Magistrates court where several accounts including murder were read to them before being remanded.
The attacks which claimed 5 lives and left several injured took place in the villages of Kisojo, Kyamabaale, and Kyabagoma in Kibinge sub-county on the eve of the New Year.
The police boss pitch camped in the area just a day after victims including a retired Senior Superintendent of Police, Denis Ssebugwawo, were killed in cold blood as the suspected thugs attacked families in the districts of Lwengo and Bukomansimbi in the wee hours of the New Year’s Eve.
Gen Kayihura also fired the District Police Commander of Bukomansimbi Francis Ameru thus replacing him with Isabirye Karooli, the commander in Charge of Operations at Nagalama Police Station.
The directive was issued by the police chief over the weekend in a meeting with Police Commanders from Greater Masaka Region.
Ameru who has been the DPC in Bukomansimbi for less than a month was blamed for poor command.
Kayihura did not say where he Ameru would be transferred, but promised that orders for his deployment would be released soon.
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