The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Details have emerged how the Flying Squad Unit tracked and arrested the prime suspect in the murder of Sheikh Masuudi Mutumba, the Imam of Iwemba Masjid Noor mosque in Bugiri district.
Sheikh Masuudi Mutumba, 60, was gunned down at his home at Busimba village, Iwemba sub county in Bugiri district by a lone assailant on Friday night.
The Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson, Patrick Onyango told URN yesterday afternoon that they have since apprehended the prime suspect.
Uganda Radio Network –URN has since established that the suspect is Bazil Mugoya, a supervisor in one of the private security companies in Kampala.
According to sources, Mugoya was named by his accomplice and Boda-boda rider who was arrested hours after Sheikh Mutumba’s assassination.
Highly placed police sourced told URN that the suspect was tracked down by a team comprising of Flying Squad operatives and CID officers from Kampala.
They tracked his on and off phone signals until he was captured giving instructions to security guards at Total pump fuel station opposite Uganda House in Kampala.
The team picked Mugoya’s details from a friend with whom they hatched the plan to eliminate Mutumba. It is alleged that Mugoya and his colleague were approached by a family, which was involved in a land dispute with the deceased.
Mugoya, according to sources, switched off his telephone lines soon after the murder and only turned it on at a certain stage perhaps when he was boarding a vehicle that brought him to Kampala. He allegedly travelled to Bugiri on Friday morning where he kept watch of Mutumba’s movement.
“When he returned to Kampala, he made calls to security guards he supervises in Rubaga Division. Flying Squad followed the signals, deployed covert operatives in Rubaga and other places where his subordinates had been deployed,” the source said.
He reportedly kept switching on and off his phone. His last call was made at around 10pm. Covert officers caught him unawares at Total pump fuel station and he led the team to Rubaga where he had hidden the killer gun.
“Mugoya had hidden the Semi-Automated Rifle –SAR inside one of the University branches where he had deployed two security guards to protect the premises. The gun was recovered with bullets,” the source said.
Police Spokesperson, Fred Enanga, said preliminary findings indicate that Sheikh Mutumba was killed because of an ongoing land wrangle with his neighbor, Suleiman Koita. According to Police, the deceased won a Civil suit in Bugiri High Court.
The other party appealed the judgment in Jinja High Court where judgment is expected today.
According to Enanga, Sheikh Mutumba’s murder is no way connected to his faith or killing of Muslim clerics. Several Muslim clerics were killed between 2012 and 2016 across the country by gunmen moving on motorcycles.
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