7 arrested for looting produce, torching truck in Abim

Abim, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  Abim police are holding seven people accused of looting produce and torching a lorry belonging to Samuel Okwii, a businessman from Amuria district. 

The suspects, who are related, are said to have looted sorghum and maize from Okwii’s truck when it passed near their homes in Pupukamuya village in Nyakwae Sub County on Tuesday before they torched it.

The suspects accused the truck driver of trespassing on their land instead of using the main road. According to police, the driver was driving near the home of Julius Okullu who is said to have smashed its windscreen before mobilizing his neighbors to torch it. 

Enos Odong, the Officer in Charge of the Criminal Investigations Department-CID in Abim, says the residents first looted the produce on the truck before they torched it when the driver fled for dear life. 

The Abim Resident District Commissioner, Samuel Mpimbaza Hashaka has condemned the mob action. “The businessman had bought produce from the locals in Pupukamuya. As the driver was passing through some of the homes, the residents barricaded the road looted the produce. They burnt the lorry afterwards,” said Hashaka.   

The residents looted over 40 bags of produce and over Shillings 5 million from the traders aboard the lorry. “During the looting, an LDU who was enforcing law and order was shot dead under unclear circumstances,” said Hashaka. The LDU was in the company of two other security officers who including a police officer and LDU on official duty.

Eyewitnesses told Uganda Radio Network that one of the community members disarmed the LDU and shot him dead at the scene.  The area UPDF Spokesperson Maj. Peter Mugisa, said the army is investigating the incident. “We are investigating the allegations that a civilian grabbed a gun from one of the LDUs and shot him dead,” said Mugisa told URN in a phone interview.

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URN