I saw Magara suspect pick bag with ransom money - witness
RIP. Susan Magara. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- The witness told court that at first, they wondered if the lady had dropped fetishes (witchcraft) and they did not follow Mr Kyewolya until police contacted them during investigations.
A witness has said he saw one of the suspects in the murder trial of Susan Magara picking a bag containing a Shs700m ransom cash that the kidnappers had demanded from her family.
Mr Wasswa Ssegawa, a builder and a resident of Kanaaba-Ndejje Village in Makindye- Ssabagabo, Wakiso District, yesterday said on February 24, 2018 at about 10am while seated at a shop talking with three of his colleagues, he saw Mr Abubaker Kyewolwa, one of the suspects in the case, leaning on a container while talking on phone.
He added that they didn’t mind him though he looked new in the area.
“After a while, I saw a lady walking with a back-pack (bag), which she placed in the middle of the road together with a mobile phone she was talking on. She by-passed the man (Kyewolwa) who was wearing a hooded - jumper but the face and the beard were clearly seen. He picked the bag and the phone and walked towards Ndejje - Zanta,” Mr Ssegawa, the ninth prosecution witness, testified.
He added: “We never spoke to the man as he was new in the area but when he picked the bag, we shouted at him asking where he was taking the lady’s bag and he (suspect) replied that they were together.”
The witness told court that at first, they wondered if the lady had dropped fetishes (witchcraft) and they did not follow Mr Kyewolya until police contacted them during investigations.
Mr Kyewolya is jointly charged with eight other people on the kidnap and murder of Magara who was a cashier with her family business, Bwendero Dairy Farm.
Other suspects are Mr Yususf Lubega, Mr Hussein Wasswa, Mr Ssali Muzamiru, Hajara Nakandi, Mr Mahad Kisalita, Hassan Kato Miiro, Mr Ismail Bukenya and Mr Musa Abbas Buvumbo.
The trial is being presided over by High Court Judge Alex Ajiji.
Another witness of the day was Ms Jane Makumbi, a house wife. Core to her testimony was that sometime in February 2018 at about 11am, as she was washing clothes, she saw a tall and slim lady dropping a bag and a phone in the middle of the road.
Mr Frank Nyakairu, an investigator attached to the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, testified that he knew all the suspects after getting information that the kidnappers had called Susan Magara’s mother, which gave leads to phone contacts and their eventual arrest.
The State, represented by Ms Irene Nakimbugwe and Mr Joseph Kyomuhendo, claims that the suspects and others still at large, on February 7, 2018 kidnapped Susan Magara.The suspects allegedly got a Shs700m ransom but went ahead and killed Magara in cold blood on grounds that she had been with them for a long time and would easily identify them if they had freed her.
