Moyo journalist accuses police of assault

Adjumani, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A Nation Media Group-NMG journalist in Moyo district is nursing wounds he sustained by police officers enforcing curfew on Thursday evening. Scovin Iceta, who reports for NTV and the Daily Monitor told URN on Friday that police officers in Adjumani roughed him up on Thursday evening after spotting him taking pictures of a pregnant mother carrying boiled maize running away to evade arrest.

He says that the officers clobbered him with sticks and butts of their guns causing bodily injuries.

The journalist was part of the team that had accompanied a team from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to the refugee settlement camps in Adjumani district and had just booked into one of the hotels within Adjumani Town Council for the night.

Iceta narrated to URN that the captivating scene drew his attention prompting him to take pictures. He, however, says that no sooner had he started taking the pictures than the officers spotted him, charged towards him and started raining blows and kicks.

He says that the officers trampled on him even when he had fallen down. According to Iceta, the police officers confiscated his camera and deleted the photos and footage he had captured from the scene, arguing that he acted without their permission.

The officers later whisked him off to Adjumani Central Police Station but released him later in the evening without charge. Iceta told URN on phone from the clinic where he was receiving treatment that he lost seventy thousand Shillings that was in his pocket during the fracas, phone charger, press jacket and tripod. He also explained that he sustained injuries on the mouth, neck, back and legs.

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URN

Cue out: …of the incident.’’//

He has since filed a case of assault at Adjumani Central Police Station SD Ref: 19/30/07/2021.  Peter Taban, the Adjumani Resident District Commissioner, who chairs the District Security Committee, confirmed the incident, saying that he was yet to gather the details.