The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Nakasongola, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The families of two people who were allegedly abducted by armed personnel in Nakasongola district have fled their homes in fear.
George Ssenyonjo, 36, a resident of Kirooro village in Nakitoma sub county was allegedly abducted by unidentified gunmen on January 5th, 2021.
His friend, Godfrey Sekaggya, 31, a resident of Njeru trading center also from Nakitoma sub county was also picked up by armed personnel driving in a numberless minibus alias drone the following day.
Ssenyonjo’s wife Sarah Namitala says that her husband was riding on a motorbike with a friend on their way to Nakasongola to check on his ill grandmother when a drone blocked the road and armed personnel arrested him.
Namitala says the gunmen beat up Ssenyonjo before forcing him into the van and sped off leaving the rider behind. According to Namitala, the rider told her that the gunmen beat her husband while demanding for a gun.
She explains that they have tried to look for the whereabouts of her husband at local police stations in vain.
Namitala has now relocated to the residence of her mother in law together with her three children citing fear and lack of essentials.
However, the mother in law Margaret Kyeyune says that she doesn’t have food and money to look after her son’s family since she also depended on Ssenyonjo for survival.
Kyeyune has pleaded for the unconditional release of her son to allow him to resume work, saying they may starve to death.
Evelyn Nabiccu, the wife to Godfrey Sekaggya also narrates that armed personnel through a local informer tricked her husband into buying him a soda and grabbed him at a local shop at around 11:30 am.
She explains that the gunmen beat up Sekaggya and attempted to strangle him before they forced him into a waiting drone vehicle and drove off.
Nabiccu says efforts to trace the whereabouts of her husband at various police stations have yielded nothing.
Sekaggya’s brother Geoffrey Ssenozi says that his sibling received threats for declining to campaign for National Resistance Movement-NRM candidates prior to his arrest which he believes is a source of his troubles.
The victim’s mother Efuka Namutebi and father Fred Sembuya Magambo say they are living in agony after failing to trace the whereabouts of their son.
According to Magambo, he is sickly and his missing son has been the one helping him to access better treatment. The families have since pleaded with President Yoweri Museveni to order the unconditional release of their abducted persons.
Isah Ssemwogerere, the Savannah Regional police spokesperson told URN that he was yet to get details on the missing persons. In his nationwide address on Feb 14th, 2021, President Yoweri Museveni revealed that at least five people were arrested from Nakasongola district.
He however didn’t give details of the charges preferred against them and their names. Over 300 people have been arrested and others abducted from various parts in connection to the just concluded elections.
Museveni urged the nation to ignore the talk of disappearances saying the missing persons were arrested in connection to subversive activities and other crimes. He directed security chiefs to avail the list of the suspects in their custody.
*****
URN
Dictator Yoweri Museveni is behaving exactly like his predecessors Idi Amin and Milton Obote whom he despised and ridiculed for many years; actually, he is far worse than them. What a shame!