Six police officers arrested over extortion of UGX 200,000 from Danish national

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Police Professional Standards Unit-PSU is holding six police officers attached to the emergency response unit for allegedly extorting money from a Danish national on grounds of not having a face mask.

Commissioner of Police-CP Fred Enanga, police spokesperson said the six officers extorted money amounting to 200,000 shillings from a Danish national identified as Michael Barger, who went and lodged a complaint at the offices of PSU in Bukoto-Kampala over the weekend prompting their arrest.

“When our team at the Professional Standards Unit registered this complaint, they took interest and went to the extent of retrieving the CCTV footage from the point of alleged extortion, and these officers who were conducting the operation on police patrol vehicle number UP 4918 were well identified and arrested,” Enanga said.

The six officers have been identified as Police constable-PC Gerald Asului, Police constable-PC Aduma Kisitu, Police constable-PC Phillip Olim, Police constable-PC Obel Bonny, Police constable-PC Jacks Ankunda, and Constable Driver Owele Isa.

Enanga explains that the six suspects are being held on charges of extortionist tendencies and professional misconduct actions that can’t be tolerated in the police force.

“These are outright cases of professional misconduct that we can longer tolerate,” Enanga said. “They claim that the man was moving without a mask everywhere. The man tried to plead with them that he was new in the country, but they went on to extort money from him before letting him go,” Enanga added.

Police have since called on the general public to always come out and report such cases of unprofessional conduct by individual officers tarnishing the image of the force. Enanga gave out the PSU reporting line to the public as 0707601052.

In April this year, over 150 personnel were dismissed from the force by the late former Deputy Inspector General of police Major Gen. Paul Lokech. They were accused of consistently engaging in corruption and indiscipline activities within the force.

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