Police arrest two for attempted robbery of UGX 200M

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Two suspects are in police custody for attempting to rob over Shillings 200 million from employees of LOMS Forex Bureau on Titanic plaza. Charles Twine, the spokesperson of the Criminal Investigations Directorate-CID identifies the suspects as Umar Kakooza, a boda boda rider and resident of Mperere-Kawempe and Amir Mugerwa Amir, a hawker at Park Enkade Mall around Old Taxi Park.

According to Twine, at around 2:00 pm, Richard Kawongo and Richard Mutabazi, both employees of LOMS Forex Bureau left their office on a motorcycle to covert US$ 55,000 into Shillings at Bank of Africa Jinja road. He explains that on their way back, four men riding on two motorcycles intercepted them at the Entebbe road traffic light junction.

“The victims were beaten by these robbers to take the money, but luckily enough, they got help from other boda boda riders and police officers who managed to arrest only two of the suspects and impounded one of the motorcycles, a bajaj boxer Reg. Number UER 994H,” said Twine.

He says that the officers whisked off the suspects to the Central Police Station-CPS Kampala where they are being held on charges of attempted robbery as the hunt for the remaining suspects continues. “They are held on allegations of attempted robbery under file no CPS KLA CRB 899/2021. Once the investigators are done, the suspects will be charged with appropriate charges as advised by the DPP,” said Twine.

Police have since cautioned the general public particularly the business fraternity against moving with huge sums of money without protection. “We sincerely appeal to the general public that if you’re to move with large amounts of money, contact the territorial police to provide protection as our mandate,” Twine said.

According to the 2020 crime report, 364 cases of cash robbery were registered compared to 426 cases reported in 2019. A total of UGX 2,570,934,460 was robbed out of which UGX. 272,526,300 was recovered.

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