Fresh details by eye witnesses in the shooting of a one Robert Mugisha on Monday night in Nansana have revealed that it could have been an intentional act by the security operatives.
Mugisha, 29, was shot dead late Monday night as he was returning from watching a soccer match between Chelsea and Manchester United at Timeless Bar in Nansana.
The UPDF First Infantry Division Spokesperson, Maj. Bilal Katamba, then confirmed the shooting and said the victim was a criminal.
He said their officers had been tipped about a suspicion that the said vehicle in which the diseased was, was involved in some criminal activities. They followed him and deflated his tyres after he resisted arrest. He further explained that on interception, the deceased tried to escape, which prompted the operatives to shoot him through the stomach.
Eye witness Speaks out
After the incident, our reporters went to Nansana Kabumbi, where the shooting took place, to carry out an investigation.
Alex, an eye witness who spoke on condition that his other name remains anonymous, reveals that the shooting must have been planned long before it actually happened.
He says as he was coming from Big Zone club in Nansana where he operates as a boda boda cyclist, and saw the deceased parking his car, a Toyota Progres as another white Toyota Premio followed. Two men moved out of the white Premio and asked the deceased to come out of the vehicle.
“They tied his hands behind the back and asked him to lie down facing the ground,” Alex explained.
He says they were only two operatives, one in an army uniform and another, who actually shot at the deceased, in LDU outfits with black gumboots.
The UPDF officer kept a distance, quite away from where all things were happening from, as if he was trying to avoid being identified.
With the helpless captive begging for mercy from his indifferent captors, the two armed men examined the vehicle from inside and out as if they were looking for something exquisitely important.
They then spent some time endlessly talking on phone. Their endless calls scared Mugisha, who developed a thought that he would rather die trying than be killed like a blind deaf sheep.
He untied himself, according to Alex using the mouth and sped off.
The LDU operative shot twice in the air and then onto a helpless Mugisha as he attempted to seek refugee from a near by house, ripping his stomach open, according to Alex.
Groaning with pain, on the ground in a pool of blood, Mugisha continuously implored his armed executors for mercy as they appeared to celebrate a sweet mission accomplished.
Alex says he personally tried to ask the LDU trigger happy operative as to why he had not shot the legs, to which he said he had orders to kill him.
“He said that the victim was supposed to die either way when I asked him why he had shot to kill,” Alex explained with shock still written over his face.
As people started converging, it was certain that Mugisha would certainly die if not accorded urgent medical attention.
The relatives and friends pleaded with the executioners to let them run their loved one to hospital for medical attention but they rejected, saying it would jeopardize their investigations.
Why Mugisha may not have been a criminal
Our investigations revealed that Mugisha was a well known person in the area where he was killed and Wakiso where he lived.
At a pork joint in Nansana along Nabweeru road, Nalongo says Mugisha has been her regular customer who often visited to buy pork.
“He has been coming here and parking his car just there until his pork is ready. He has been very social and a peaceful man,” Nalongo informed as she sobbed for a client she will surely never meet again.
His sister, Jenifer Mbabazi, says her brother has been a very kind and trustworthy person and allegations that he was a criminal are very insulting.
She has challenged security to swallow their pride and own up to their mistake, insisting that insulting the deeased in that untruthful manner will just further sink the family into more pain.
Mugisha is a grand son of Mzee Yesu Amala, who happens to be one of the most prominent elders in the municipality.
With no single complaint that the victim was a perennial offender, then labeling him a shoot to kill offender raises questions that demand for answers.
On the allegation that the car could have been stolen since it had no licence plates, Mugisha had owned this very car for more than a year which somehow proves authenticity of ownership.
A week ago, according to the deceased’s widow, Betty Nassimbwa, thieves had raided their home and plucked off the licence plates from their car.
Mugisha had report the case at Wakiso Police Station as he continued through the process of obtaining new ones from The Uganda Revenue Authority.
This means that if Mugisha was killed for driving without a licence plate, then it was not called for.
On why the victim didn’t stop when he was stopped by the security, it’s understandable. Not with the fear that comes when people wielding guns in the night and travelling in a vehicle with private plates ambush you.
Mugisha must have been frightened and he chose to stop in the open place, hopping his tormenters would feel ashamed to murder him as the world watched. He was wrong for they did it without remorse.
Could money have been the motive?
After the incident, eye witnesses say the trigger happy operative boasted that their prey had to die whatever the circumstances.
He said he had wanted to shoot him while still in the road but was stopped by a boda boda cyclist who crossed in front of Mugisha, explaining that the bullets shot in the air were not intended to urge him into submission but rather so that the other boda boda should give way.
Money lost.
According to the widow, her husband had been expecting Shs4m to buy merchandise from town the following day and informed her that he had received the money.
The money has since gone missing. Could Mugisha have been slain because of this money?.
Your guess is as right as mine.
For making endless calls after the victim was netted, the offices could have been receiving orders probably from whoever had asked them to get the job done.
When relatives and friends asked to take their beloved one to the hospital as he was losing a lot of blood, the plea was rejected possibly because they didn’t want the victim to live for he would tell the story.
The above observations there exposes the lies by the security that this killing was warranted and the victim was a criminal.
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