Members of the Uganda Police Force sitting on the Police and Advisory Committee (PAC) have voted to reopen the Anti-Narcotic Department offices at the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) headquarters in Kibuli and Entebbe Airport.
The development comes after offices spent eight months under seal as crime scenes. In November 2017 the department was sealed off after the arrest of its head, Tinka Zarugaba for theft and tampering with Cocaine exhibits at Entebbe Airport.
He, together with six other senior and junior police officers including the then Commandant of the Very Important Person Police Unit (VIPPU), Dodovico Awita would later be arraigned in Entebbe Magistrate Court and charged with tampering with 85kgs of Cocaine exhibit and exchanging it with Cassava Flour. Prose
cution however dropped the charges against Mr. Zarugaba and another officer in January 2018 leaving only five of the suspects to face the charges of theft and evidence tampering.
The case was then dismissed in May 2018 by the Entebbe Chief Magistrate on ground that Prosecution was wasting the Court's time by asking for time to complete investigations.
Now, the DPP is set to reinstate the case once investigations are completed. But on Wednesday August 1st 2018 Grace Akullo, the Director of the Criminal Investigations Directorate told members of the Police and Advisory Committee-PAC that the department is still closed despite the fact that the case was dismissed from Court.
It was upon this, that PAC which is comprised of Inspector General of Police (IGP), Deputy IGP, Undersecretary and all police directors resolved to reopen the offices. This was confirmed by police spokesperson in charge CID Vincent Ssekate.
Akullo has now constituted a team of seven officers including one from the Government Analytical Laboratory to review every exhibit stored in the Anti-Narcotic Department. This is to ensure that every exhibit still has the original seal of the Analytical Laboratory and signed by the personal that did the analysis.
The team, after reviewing the exhibits in Kibuli is expected to move to Entebbe Airport Police where the department's office was also sealed off and reopen it in the presence of operatives from both the Chieftaincy Military Intelligence (CMI) and Internal Security Organisation (ISO).