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Police busts motorcycle theft gang in Tororo
Motorcycles recovered from suspected thugs are seen at police in Tororo on February 7, 2024. PHOTO/JOSEPH OMOLLO
What you need to know:
- Tusingwire noted that the operation was conducted in video halls and bars where they successfully captured a “reasonable number of suspects.”
Police have busted a gang of suspected robbers accused of murdering and robbing motorcycles from boda boda cyclists in the greater Tororo region.
Bukedi South regional police commander Julius Caesar Tusingwire says the detained suspects have been carrying out coordinated attacks on boda boda riders with some cyclists hit to death using blank objects.
The suspects, whose identities have been withheld because the operation is still ongoing, were arrested during a Tuesday night intelligence led operation by police with its sister security agencies in Malaba town.
Tusingwire noted that the operation was conducted in video halls and bars where they successfully captured a “reasonable number of suspects including men and women that are yet to be screened.”
“Those who will be found innocent will be released because some of those arrested were just mere customers,” he emphasized of the operation which followed public outcry after over 5 boda boda cyclists were murdered and more than 7 motorcycles robbed in separate incidents in two weeks.
''The murders and robberies began just after the festive season where the assailants would disguise as passengers and lure the cyclists to take them to dark places where they end up hitting them to death and thereafter go with their motorcycles'' Tusingwire explained.
Police are optimistic to arrest several other suspects still at large--- with the help of their detained colleagues.
But Tusingwire says police recovered likely exhibits including pangas, knives and spear heads which they believe were used by suspects against their targets.
“Police also recovered 12 motorcycles with Kenyan number plates, intoxicating substances, phones, hooks, strings that would trap cyclists in isolated places at night plus reflectors that had blood stains among others,” he noted.
According to Ugandan authorities, most of the motorcycles stolen in Tororo end up being used within Malaba border town after replacing their number Ugandan number plates with Kenyan credentials.
They are mostly ridden at night.
