Police suspends eight for abuse of office

The Police Professional Standards Unit has suspended eight senior police officers in Lira district for alleged abuse of office and incompetence.

North Kyoga Region Police spokesperson, Mr David Ongom Odong says the suspension follows a recent rectification campaign aimed at improving professionalism, capability, confidence, credibility and transparency among police officers.

The campaign also involved seeking public opinion on the operations of Uganda Police Force as well as some individual officers. Uganda Radio Network has learnt that during the exercise, the public complained bitterly about some police departments and officers deployed within.

Individual officers were cited for asking for bribes, mismanagement of cases, laxity in carrying out investigations and incompetence. Their identity's have however been concealed reportedly to avoid jeopardizing ongoing investigations against them.

According to Uganda Radio Network, some of the suspended officers include Francis Liga, the officer in charge of Lira Main Market Police Post, another identified only as Aula and the officer in charge of Lira Bus Park Police post whose name could not be established.

Police officers in Lira have of recently come under attacks for demanding bribes and mismanagement of cases.

On Monday, relatives of the late Phenous Otile, a resident who was killed in April, marched through Lira main street and pitched camp at Lira High Court protesting the manner in which the case has been handled. This came after the main suspect in the killing was freed by court.

Last year, two police officers; Assistant Inspector of Police Moses Odongo and Detective Constable Julius Opira were found with 400, 000 that they had allegedly received as a bribe. The two had been invited to facilitate a workshop on community policing organized by an NGO and demanded to be paid 2 million Shillings. They later threatened to open a case against the organizers.
They allegedly demanded for Shs2 million to resolve the matter amicably. But the NGO staff alerted police headquarters, who sent Special Investigation Unit officers to arrest them. They were each jailed for 3 years for corruption