The Police was accused of high handed beating, breaking the femur of the cyclist who sought to win bread for his family. The Police failed to provide a sketchy graphic on CCTV, despite having beaten the cyclist in front of one at the three road junction, overseeing Najjanankumbi.
There are fears that the officers, under instructions of the Kampala South Regional Police Commander Godfrey Achiria, perused through the drug net to avoid being culpable.
Barely before the region could come to terms with the incident, and as the State House Anti-corruption unit perused through the details of the incident to see what transpired, the officers struck again.
In September last year, Tom Odaka, a 50 year old businessman, was burnt to ashes, by an angry mob, in Bwerenga, Katabi town. The businessman was then inspecting his 60 acre piece of land that had encumbrance.
On the fateful Friday evening, Odaka moved to the area with a host of Police Officers, and a grader, to evict the residents. He later burnt down, together with a grader, despite having had security offered to him by Kampala Metropolitan South Regional Police Commander, Godfrey Achiria.
Well as the deployment was made, neither Entebbe nor Kisubi Police stations knew about the deployments. An investigation by a team of security operatives within Entebbe indicated that the regional police commander had, prior to the fateful incident, pitched camp in the neighboring Kawuku suburb, waiting for rapid response.
A family source privy to the occurrences, in an interview with this website said, the Regional Police Commander had given express assurances, that everything would be fine and that he would lead the operation. “Unfortunately, Mzee died in an uncoordinated fracas,” a relative told this website. The case has since stalled in the courts of Judicature.
Earlier on in the day, officers at different Police Stations including Bwebajja and Wamala, had complained of continuous infringement on the activities of the different Police stations by the Regional Police Commander who would allegedly give directives that contravenes basic principles of deployment and operations.
“Our commanders have been struggling with who to follow. The RDC in Entebbe would offer different directives, the RPC also comes with different ones. At one time, both the then RDC and the RPC agreed and gave us illegal directives with a court case still ongoing on a piece of land situated in Kisubi.” A senior Police officer at Bwebajja told this website.
It has been alleged, on such orders, Achiria has severely humiliated officers in uniform and disregarded their roles in the administration of justice against land fraud, while protecting conmen and land fraudsters such as Charles Kyagaba who was recently arrested by the State House anti-corruption unit for grabbing land belonging to Ms. Margaret Kyomuhangi, in Ziru, Kajjansi Town Council.
Kyagaba, together with a host of other people, demolished a house and several other collateral that belonged to Kyomuhangi. A source who was at the scene of crime indicated that the arrested engaged in constant consultations from the Regional Police Commander they only addressed as RPC.
“We all know the meaning of RPC. It clearly means the Regional Police Commander and I do not expect them to call someone who is not from the same region,” the source said.
Kyagaba is also accused of engaging in murder, a case which has also been taken to court. He is accused of engaging in activities that led to the killing of people within Katabi Town Council as his alleged thirst for land sent him fighting with land owners within the area.
Achiria replaced James Ruhweza who acted as Regional Police Commander, before he was taken for a course. He first worked in acting capacity before being appointed as the substantive Regional Police Commander.
He has also been engaging in clandestine political strategies that undermined the existence and work of other security forces within the region such as the Special Forces, the Marine and Air Forces.
Earlier this year, at the height of a conflict between Robin Ssendegeya, a resident within the Metropolitan area of Kampala and Charles Kyagaba, Achiria, with consultation from Kyagaba and a host of other people with in the Entebbe Metropolitan area, moved arrest Ssendegeya, in total disregard of the Kajjansi Police station and all affiliate security agencies.
Achiria also ordered Kyagaba and aided the demolition of a Perimeter wall constructed by Ssendegeya on his own land so as to justify the claiming of land ownership. A telephone recording between Kyagaba and Achiria obtained by this website indicates how a plan orchestrated by the two was supposed to be ensured.
At the height of a heated land wrangle, Achiria, with the help of Kyagaba, accused Ssendegeya of engaging in aggravated robbery that led to the loss of more than Ugx 200 million.
Indeed, Kyagaba, the alleged arrested land fraudster, told a host of people, on record, that if Ssendegeya accepted to share his plot of land with him, all charges would immediately be dropped for harmony, a call that Ssendegeya refused.
A police officer who asked not to be named told this website that Ssendegeya, on orders of Achiria, was detained despite several calls to release him.
Despite all the irregularities, several Police officers at the Police Station in Entebbe accuse the regional police commander of being a bully, “and he usually wants everyone to know he wields all the powers and cannot let all other commanders engage in the policing work. At the end of it all, he leaves the police in disarray because he wants to make more money,” a Police officer at Entebbe Central Police Station told this website.
It is upon such background several security officers within the Kampala South Metropolitan area asked for the dropping of Superintendent of Police, Godfrey Achiria as the Kampala Metropolitan South Police Commander.
“We are grappling with increased land grabbing within the Entebbe Sub District because the RPC can override all the DPCs and command in favor of all the fraudsters we have been fighting so hard to eliminate. They steal all our people’s land and leave people suffering only because they have access to them and yet, we can’t seem to be fighting one another,” A highly placed security officer in Entebbe told this website.
The allegations in a security report discussing the area security committee indicate a declining trust in public institutions within the area “since all people now know, they may not be of value if anyone above them overrides the rule of law and the instructions of the members of the security committee,” part of the report reads.
Security now worries that for Kyagaba to be served with justice, there is need to have people such as the Regional Police Commander also arranged before court to ensure that they answer charges which include a conspiracy to commit a crime within the area.
This website tried efforts to reach the Regional Police Commander, Achiria for a comment. However, his know telephone contacts could not be picked.
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