NYEGE NYEGE: Four arrested for robbing French national

Itanda, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Four suspects are in custody at Buwenge central police station in Jinja district for allegedly attacking a French national, Quentin Perie Jolu, 33, at the ongoing Nyege-Nyege festival.

The suspects are Walker Enyonyozi, 27, a student of Makerere University Business School-MUBS Jinja campus, Eddy Ssekamwa, 26, John Kasule 30, and Abdul Sseguya 24. Police picked up the suspects after Quentin implicated them for hitting him with a blunt object before fleeing off with his phone and other valuables.

Quentin is one of the revelers attending the four-day festival at Itanda falls in Butagaya sub-county, which has attracted thousands of people from different parts of the world. A team of officers from the police health services unit and their counterparts from the Red Cross Society found Quentin lying unconscious along the Nile river banks and rushed him to Butagaya health center III for further management.

He later identified his attackers. The suspects have confessed to orchestrating several thefts but have since denied attacking Quentin. In his statement, Kasule explains that they operate in a team of four and target largely women’s handbags and jewelry. “We are based in Kampala city and only accessed this festival as revelers but our coordination person here is Enyonyozi who helps us to spot soft targets with expensive jewelry and designer handbags,” he said.

He revealed that the rest of their teammates are then dispatched to initiate conjugal relationships with their victims before robbing them of their valuables. Kiira Regional Police Spokesperson James Mubi says that they have deployed detectives to recover Quentin’s 1500USD, iPhone, warrant credit card, and other valuables which were stolen from him during last night’s attack.

Mubi notes that a team of police detectives and their counterparts from CMI have been dispatched to intensify efforts to weed out criminal-minded elements from the festival venue. Mubi adds that they have also issued an emergency WhatsApp number where revelers and exhibitors alike can file their complaints for quick attention in case of any attack or encounter with suspicious activity in the course of the festival.

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