LUUKA- Police in Luuka District on Tuesday arrested a man posing as a State House official and allegedly extorting money from residents.
The suspect identified as Paul Waiswa, a resident of Bukyangwa Village in Nawampiti Sub-county, is said to have been collecting Shs20,000 from each resident to take them to State House to meet the President.
The Luuka District Police Commander, Mukonno Mwene, said by the time of the suspect’s arrest, over 300 residents had been conned.
“The suspect would carry the victims to Entebbe, disappears and switches his phone off,” Mr Mwene said, urging victims who might not have filed their complaints with police to do so.
This is not the first time people are arrested for impersonating State House officials.
In 2016, Police in Mayuge district arrested a 33-year-old man for allegedly posing as a State House official in charge of the health and monitoring unit.
The officer in charge of criminal investigations at Mayuge Police Station, Abdul Nasser Mulimira, identified the suspect as Godfrey Kauja, a resident of Mwezi village in Mpungwe sub-county in Mayuge.
Mulimira said that Kauja was arrested in Mpungwe trading centre after a tip-off to Police.
He added that Kauja told drug operators that he was responsible for inspecting and licensing private pharmacies.
“He went to villages and started operations claiming that he was an officer from State House. He extorted money from private drug operators in the pretext of verifying their operational licenses,” Mulimira said.
He added that he extorted sh100,000 to sh150,000 for drug operators who never had licenses.
In April this year, Police arrested a man who allegedly obtained money from police officers to help them get promotions and juicy deployments, on pretence that he was a son of the Inspector General of Police, Martins Okoth Ochola.
Patrick Oloka was a resident of Kisugu, a Kampala suburb.
IGP Ochola late distanced himself from the man.
