Government releases Abiriga postmortem to relatives
RIP. Caskets containing the bodies of Ibrahim Abiriga (left) and his brother Saidi Buga Kongo in Rhino camp Sub-county, Arua District. Photo BY MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI
What you need to know:
- Mr Museveni told mourners that government would take care of Abiriga’s widow and the nine children alongside the five orphans and Saidi Kongo’s widow.
- He also announced Shs50m as seed capital for a planned Sacco for Abiriga’s clan members for whom relatives reported that the slain MP was a benefactor.
The government yesterday offered a sketchy postmortem report to the family of MP Ibrahim Abiriga and his brother-cum-body guard, Saidi Buga Kongo, showing each of them died of “multiple gunshot injuries”.
The reports handed over to the duo’s uncle, Rtd Maj Abudallah Ezale, did not specify how many times each was shot and the parts of the body that the killer bullets penetrated.
It remained unclear if a detailed version will be given to the family in future.
There was no doctor, as is usually the medical practice, to hand over the report and explain the findings on the cause of death to relatives.
Lower Ma’di MP Ismail Ogama, who is a nephew to the late Abiriga, passed the documents informally to Rtd Maj Ezale.
The director of Police Medical Services, Dr Moses Byaruhanga, and retired pathologist, Dr Male Mutumba, carried out the autopsies on Saturday, according to the documents seen by this newspaper.
Abiriga, an NRM fanatic who turned to symbolise the party by dressing all-yellow, was gunned near his home in Kawanda, Wakiso District, last Friday.
He was behind the steering wheel and his brother, a UPDF soldier who had recently returned from a peace-keeping mission deployment in Somalia, was in the co-driver’s seat and doubling as an escort.
Abiriga was one of the architects of the removal of the presidential age limit for which he was loathed and vilified by different sections of Ugandans.
President Museveni hinted, subject to confirmation byinvestigators, that the lawmaker may have been killed because of his love and mobilisation for the ruling NRM party.
Their attackers, residents said, lay in wait for a while during which time they surveilled the pair.
The lawmaker had also confided in friends in Arua, according to one who chose not to be named, that his life was in danger and his repeated attempts to reach out to President Museveni to explain his precarious state were unsuccessful.
The President, however, telephoned the widow Sijali Amina the night of the husband’s killing.
State Defence Minister Bright Rwamirama commended the contributions of the duo to peace and security in the country, and said their benefits will be processed “according to the law”.
