KIREKA – Police has said two members of the Uganda Poor Youth Movement (UPYM) are under arrest over allegations of extortion and threatening violence and are currently detained at SIU Kireka.
According to police, the two suspects Ben Sebuguzi and Lillian Mukiibi, belong to an illegal organisation which is not registered according to the laws of Uganda.
“The holding charges are threatening violence, blackmail and extortion.
Using their illegal organisation, the duo has been using illegal methods to obtain money and information from key personalities in the country,” a police statement signed by Deputy police spokesman Patrick Onyango reads in part.
It adds: “The most recent incident, they demanded information in possession of the IGG, Ms Irene Mulyagonja to be released to them, if not they would do something she will regret.
The IGG complained to Police and Director CID began investigations that led to their arrest.”
Mr Onyango said they are likely to appear in court next week.
“We are urging members of the public who have any information in regard to this illegal group to go to CID headquarters, Kibuli.
We are still looking for other members of this illegal organisation.”
Mr Ssebuguzi was reportedly kidnapped by armed men on Wednesday afternoon.
His lawyer Isaac Ssemakadde said Mr Ssebuguzi was last seen at around Kampala Road on a fateful day.
“He called some relatives and friends on Wednesday afternoon and he was along Kampala Road. We have been told that he was kidnapped at the same place by armed men. His telephone lines are on but no one picks them,” Mr Ssemakadde told journalists on Thursday
He added that when then they went to the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) in Kibuli and the Special Investigations Division (SID) in Kireka, they were informed that he was taken by soldiers.
“When we went to SID, officers there told us that he was detained there briefly and later picked by soldiers in the night. The soldiers did not tell them where they were taking him. Even during his brief stay there, his tormentors did not inform officers the crimes he has committed,” Mr Ssemakadde said.
Mr Ssebuguzi is the latest victim of kidnap by people believed to be security agencies in a space of a month. The last people to be taken is Yusuf Kawooya, a member of the Democratic Party, who was violently arrested by soldiers in Kampala in broad daylight. The security agencies first denied holding until his family visited SIU in Kireka where he was found and later released.
Others are Sheikh Abubakar Kalule, an Imam at Masjid Noor Mosque in Kawaala and artist Keeza Mbabazi, whose whereabouts are unknown.
