Field Force Unit Commander SSP Rashid Agero acted lawfully-Police

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT  | Police have said there is no need to prosecute its Senior Superintendent of Police –SSP Rashid Agero, for brutalizing and smashing Dr Kizza Besigye’s vehicle.

The Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga, said whatever SSP Agero and his juniors did to Besigye and other members of Forum for Democratic Change –FDC was within the laws and well streamlined in standards police operations procedures particularly when handling riotous crowds.

Enanga said that Besigye adamantly parked in the middle of road disrupting traffic flow, especially at Spear Motors junction. Police say all engagements with Besigye hit a snag and available measures had to be used to clear the road to allow smooth movement of road users.

Agero is in a video that has since gone viral seen smashing Besigye’s vehicle using a gun butt in addition to pepper-spraying him inside his vehicle. The four-time presidential candidate survived hitting his head on the tarmac when he was splashed with water cannons.

Addressing the media, a day after the incident that was widely condemned, Besigye said he was only saved by people inside his car that held his legs as the water cannons were going to throw him down.

Enanga said the Anti-Riot Police also known as Field Force Police –FFP used the well-known measures to deal with defiant people. These measures, according to Enanga, include breaking car glasses, windows or doors to gain access or enter a house, a car to remove or arrest a person deemed a threat.

Police said whatever happened Besigye had already been planned for it in advance, a reason he had reportedly removed hooks from his motor vehicle thus it could not be towed away.

Besigye was heading to a function organised at Namboole stadium but police blocked the venue insisting that the stadium was under renovation. Enanga said Kira Municipality MP, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda and FDC President Patrick Oboi Amuriat, obeyed police’s guidance but Besigye refused.

The brutal arrest of Besigye and FDC members was condemned by human rights bodies and Speaker of Parliament as government to explain multi-party system was still viable since other political parties are not allowed to conduct their activities.

Besigye and other FDC members have since started a campaign to raise one million signatures from Ugandans to have President Museveni and other security officers dragged to International Criminal Court- ICC based at Hague in Netherlands.

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