UPDF instructor, armory guard in custody over aggravated robbery

Jinja, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Lance corporal John Anthony Nabinoli, a weapons instructor at the Jinja city-based Gaddafi barracks, and private Patrick Amandwa, a guard of the armory are in trouble for allegedly leading a racket of armed robberies within Kiira police region.

The suspects were arrested while buying a vehicle valued at Shillings 9 million from an unnamed car bond in Kampala on Sunday night. They are currently locked up at Nalufenya police station awaiting prosecution. Reports indicate that the suspects normally target corporates and fleece them of their money and phones at gunpoint before forcing them to drive towards the farm at Gaddafi barracks.

Fred Muganza, a resident of Kivubuka B village in Jinja City Northern division, says that on December 31st, 2021 while armed with AK-47 rifles, the suspects surrounded his vehicle, grabbed his two phones and an unspecified amount of money. He says that the suspects later directed him to drive them to Kimaka airfield as they fled towards Gaddafi barracks through the neighboring farms.

The same suspects attacked Fred Gulale, a resident of Budondo ward in Jinja City Northern division on January 12th, 2022. They reportedly made off with two phones with Shillings 2million each on the mobile money account. Gulale says that the suspects directed him to drive and drop them in the middle of the road, which separates Gaddafi barracks from the surrounding communities.

While revisiting the crime scene alongside one of the suspects on Monday, the officer in charge of Budondo police station, Charles Twinemukama, told journalists during the inquiries of both incidents, canines always made stopovers a few meters away from the fence of Gaddafi barracks, which prompted them to refocus their investigations on the soldiers.

Twinemukama says that the suspects will appear in court on aggravated robbery charges.

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