Five arrested for vandalizing electricity towers, railway slippers

Jinja, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Five suspects are in police custody for allegedly vandalizing electricity towers in Kakira town council and railway slippers in different parts of Jinja district. Their arrest comes two weeks after the collapse of one of the electric towers along the Kakira power line following the theft of most of its stands by unknown individuals.

The suspects are also accused of leading a gang of youths who siphon fuel from cargo trucks in Kakira sugar works limited. The suspects are Dan Adakuni, Joshua Onyango, Doona Frank, Shaban Mukama and Zigala Mesema. They are in custody at the Kiira East police station.

The suspects were arrested following a tipoff from residents indicating that the suspects were storing precious metals in their places of residence. This prompted police to conduct operations in the suburbs of Wairaka central, Kinyolo, Mawoito and Nalongo in Kakira town council leading to the arrest of the suspects.

Police also recovered railway slippers, pylons, pieces of metallic fence and new metallic beds suspected to have been stolen from the hardware shops within the neighbouring communities. Jacob Kasolo, a resident of Wairaka central says that the suspects rented a residential house where they were storing their loot.

“We alerted local authorities after noticing that our neighbours, who are renowned scrap dealers, were instead storing unspecified amounts of precious metal pieces in a residential house instead of selling them off,” he says.

Kiira region police spokesperson James Mubi says that a group of detectives has been deployed to hunt more suspects from the same racket.

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