Four suspects have Thursday been presented before LDC court and charged with the brutal murder of Tegu Emmanuel, 24 year old, male University student of Makerere.
The deceased was violently beaten by a mob on the 27.06.2020, and sustained life threatening injuries, which he eventually succumbed to on the 3.07.2020 at Mulago Hospital, Kiruddu.
Fred Ennga the Police spokesperson identifies the suspects as; Oigu Charles; a 34 year old Area Councilor; Nyeko Balam, a 33 year old security guard; Kakuru Johnson, a 24 year old resident of Makerere and Sekitoleko Moses, a 21 year old resident of Makerere.
“Their actions were supported by the post mortem report which revealed the cause of death as blunt force trauma, due to open wounds along the back, multiple cane marks on the back of the right elbow and abrasions along the abdomen and the entire back of the victim” Enanga says.
Police says that on 27.06.2020, the victim left his sister Rachael Ariongeti’s home, at Namungoona where he also stayed with his brother Sam Okwalinga, and proceeded to his church at Makerere.
He did not return home, but in the evening at around 10pm, he was found by PC Mukose Farouk who was on routine patrol behind the main building near the water tank.
The officer attempted to inquire about who he was and what he was doing at such an ordinary hour, out in the cold. He appeared erratic and responded by throwing stones at the officer, who fired three shots in the air to scare the victim but kept charging at him. This forced the officer to withdraw and communicated to his supervisor.
“The victim ran towards St Augustine church and Centenary bank, where he charged at the three private security guards but was overpowered. They hit him using the metallic chairs from the visitor’s tent, and it’s at this stage that he cried out for help, which attracted about 10-15 residents from Zone 1 and West road quarters around Lumumba hall. Among the responders were a few youth who joined the private security guards and violently assaulted the victim, whom they suspected to be a thief” Enanga narrates.
He adds that it is after the intervention of the Chaplain, St Augustine Church Makerere that the private guards and the few charged residents stopped torturing the victim and alerted the police about him.
The police team responded and rushed the victim to Mulago National Referral Hospital. The following day of 28.06.2020, he was traced at the hospital by his brother and discharged on 29.06.2020.
Police extended thoughts and prayers to their own officer, SGT Okwalinga, the father to the victim. “
Enanga argues that it is not true that police management blocked media requests to access the CCTV footages. “We do advise them to liaise with the church since it is a private footage, and also with the family of the deceased, since the public display of the images could be very disturbing. The copy retrieved by police has been taken in evidence and exhibited.”
