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Kitgum, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Residents of Corner Mission Cell in Pager division, Kitgum municipality on Monday intercepted a truck transporting suspected stolen cattle from Lamwo district.
The chairperson of security surveillance for the Pager division Agnes Atim Onek, says that the Fuso truck registration number UBF 400C was transporting 22 herds of cattle to Kampala.
Atim identified one of the suspects as David Kasaira and four other accomplices whose identities have not yet been established. According to Atim, they intercepted the lorry following a tip-off from residents who reported to the authority about the vehicle that was reportedly parked along a community road off the main highway.
Atim says when they approached the vehicle, they found some of the animals heads were covered with polythene bags. He adds that the transporters lacked any valid documents to adduce in support of the possession of the animals except for only two cows that had sales documents.
The Kitgum Resident District Commissioner William Komakech says the truck and the cows have since been impounded and the suspects held at Kitgum central police station while investigations are ongoing.
Komakech says his office is liaising with his counterparts in Lamwo to try to trace any livestock owners who could have reported any disappearance of their animals in the past few days and subsequently claim the animals.
According to Komakech, the incident comes at a time when his office has registered an increase in the number of animals stolen from the residents with more than 30 animals reported missing in less than three months.
Atim says cattle thieves have in the recent past devised tactics where they comb villages disguising as livestock buyers only to take advantage of stray animals that they later load onto their trucks and disappear with their loot.
According to Atim, upon the theft of stray animals, the suspected thieves always park their vehicles along the roadside when day breaks in disguise that they have developed mechanical problems only to leave when night breaks.
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