Man in Magara murder audio identified

Kampala/Masindi. Investigators have zeroed down on the suspected kidnapper who reportedly negotiated with the family of Susan Magara during the painful ordeal that ended in Magara losing her life.
Members of the family of the accused man have repeated the stunning revelations they made to the police to this reporter, both in Masindi and Kampala, and provided a picture of the man they say is the kidnapper.
We have reserved the identity of the family in question and will only identify the man whose family says is the kidnapper as Yakubu because investigations are still ongoing and the said man is still on the loose.
Magara was kidnapped in Mengo, a Kampala suburb, on February 7, and her body was dumped near the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway on February 27.
The 20 days in-between were of excruciating pain for her family. The man who spoke to the family on behalf of the kidnappers made threats, demanding a sum of money that was not mentioned in the audios that were released, but which one of the women bargaining on behalf of Magara’s family said was “a huge sum” and asked for it to be reduced.

Kidnappers paid
At a requiem mass in Magara’s honour, her father, Mr John Fitzegerald Magara, said they had paid the kidnappers the ransom money they had demanded but didn’t name the source. Sources close to the family told this newspaper then that Shs700m had been paid to the kidnappers.
The murder of Susan left the family traumatised, fearing for their lives. The family, therefore, decided to cooperate with security.
“Whatever Yakubu did, he did it on his own, despite the fact that he is our brother, we never approved of what he did. We are also parents, we were hurt. That’s why we worked with security to identify Yakubu’s voice,” one of his brothers told Saturday Monitor.
He narrated how Yakubu’s mother cried after the voice was played back when she realised her son had been party to the kidnap and murder of Susan.
The whole picture of who Yakubu worked with and whether he was the ringleader in the kidnap and murder is still blurry. But it is believed that he was picked to play the role he did because of his knowledge of the Runyoro language.
In one of the clips, Yakubu is heard threatening Susan Magara’s step-mother as she pleaded with him to spare her daughter’s life.
Yakubu is heard bragging about his prowess in the game of kidnap and displaying his knowledge of the family farm in Bwendero in Hoima District.

The family
Susan’s father is a successful businessman and his late daughter had grown to become a key pillar in their dairy and other businesses.
In another clip, the kidnapper directs Susan’s father to different places, including Matugga, Mpigi Ku Bikondo and Kajjansi. He later abandoned calling Magara’s father in favour of the step-mother. He said the father had involved security officials.
“If that clip had been released earlier as President Museveni had said, Susan would have been saved but it was released after she had been killed, which was unfortunate,” says one of Yakubu’s brothers.

The audio clips
At the height of the kidnap saga, the police released audio recordings of telephone conversations between members of the Magara family and the kidnapper.
The police, as a result, staked Shs100m to whoever would identify the said voice.
The information we have picked from the investigators and Yakubu’s family members is that Yakubu’s brothers, who live in Italy, readily identified the voice as belonging to their brother Yakubu and alerted family members in Masindi.
Yakubu comes from a prominent family of a former minister in the Obote I and Obote II governments.
“They sent me the voice clip and told me to play it for our mum,” a family member we spoke to in Masindi said. “When she listened to it, she told me, ‘don’t bother, that is Yakubu’.”
Earlier arrest
Prior to the Magara incident, family members say Yakubu was arrested and locked up at Old Kampala police station after his mother accused him of kidnapping his own daughter.
“He (Yakubu) came here and tricked our mother and took away his 14-year-old daughter in January. The intention was to marry her off. We got concerned when he failed to release the girl to return and resume school after the holidays. When Yakubu was summoned to police, he vowed not to reveal the whereabouts of his daughter even if they brought the military,” one of his brothers told Saturday Monitor.
The brother says Yakubu used to say that as a father, what Islam demanded of him was to marry off his daughter, not to educate her, a thing opposed by other family members.
The girl, one of the two eldest children of Yakubu, was raised by the grandmother from the age of three after Yakubu separated with his first wife.
“When our mother reported to Kibuye police, they sent her to Old Kampala but even police feared to raid the Mosque (Usafi), saying they (people at the mosque) were armed. He (Yakubu) was instead summoned and he reported.”
The family had hoped that upon arrest, Yakubu would reveal the girl’s whereabouts. He did not.
Before the mother reported to the police, Yakubu’s brother said, she had first gone to Usafi Market and asked Yakubu to give her back her grandchild, a request Yakubu rejected.

Police faulted
One of Yakubu’s brothers says Yakubu’s daughter, who we were unable to speak to for this story but was reunited with the family after the raid on the mosque, related to them how they had to be driven from Upper Konge to Usafi mosque every day to study the teachings of Islam according to those who ran the place.
The brother recounted to Saturday Monitor his disappointment after he led the police to arrest Yakubu but “they kept playing games”.
After the audio was released and the family offered to help the police to arrest Yakubu, a family member says the police officers they worked with were disappointing.
The source says: “I knew Yakubu was always at Usafi mosque at 1pm for prayers. Police sent me there and I saw him, but when I called them, they did not come. For two days, police failed to arrest Yakubu despite the fact that he would come in on a motorcycle and go out.”
The family member says he monitored Yakubu riding into Usafi mosque on a motorcycle on several occasions with another man.
The family source adds: “When the police came, there were six men in a Corona and were asking me how I knew it was Yakubu’s voice (in the audio). They asked me for transport (money). I told them that if they worked very well, they would be promoted but they did not listen. After some time, they called me asking me for Shs20,000 because their vehicle had apparently broken down.”
This, the family source says, happened on the eve of Magara’s burial on March 1, 2018. On the very day Magara was buried, the family source says, Yakubu was again sighted seated near a pool table outside Usafi market supporting his head with both hands.
The police had deployed both uniformed and plain clothes operatives with a police patrol pick-up parked in the vicinity, the family source says.
He adds: “When I told the policeman I wanted to go with them and arrest him, the policemen refused. Out of the blue, Yakubu jumped onto a motorcycle and disappeared as it was about to start raining. The police tried to give chase but failed. They were looking for someone they did not know and did not want to use my guidance. Since then, Yakubu has never returned to the mosque.”
Yakubu’s brother says his daughter says on that day, her father returned to their home in Konge, took his clothes and disappeared.
Yakubu’s family members say Yakubu was sighted in Hoima before Magara was kidnapped, but never reached any of his relatives’ homes.
“One of the people that talked to him said he told him that he was in Hoima for two days waiting for someone. I am sure that was the time he was surveilling the Magara farm in Bwendero,” Yakubu’s brother said. According to him, Yakubu would ride a motorcycle from Kampala to Hoima.
Yakubu’s brother said when their family came forward and identified the person speaking in the audio clip, even the Magara family members were relieved because speculation was mounting that an insider in the Magara family was working with the killers, by leaking information to them.
It had become fairly common knowledge in some areas in Hoima and Masindi, who the man in the leaked audio tapes was.

Public incitement
Yakubu’s brother said a presenter on a community radio station in Bunyoro, in a nine-minute broadcast, incited the public to attack the family until the Magara family intervened.
“The host (name withheld) did not know our sister works with the same radio station,” Yakubu’s brother said.
The family members believe that Yakubu is hiding in Kampala. They say he has since shaved his hitherto overgrown beard, removed the head scarf he used to wear and no longer wears the Muslim tunic that had become part of his attire. They say he now goes to mosques not associated with Salaf sect.

Who is Yakubu, the kidnapper?

Background. Yakubu is the fifth born child in the family.
Education and career. He attended Kabalega Secondary School in Masindi and dropped out in Senior Four, taking to carpentry and joinery. Yakubu then moved to Kampala and settled in Kibuye, working as a carpenter.
Family. Yakubu has two children from his first marriage, had two boys with another woman, and a few more children.
Rebirth. The members of his family say Yakubu started changing after joining a section of the Salaf (Tabliq) sect of Islam and became a regular at Usafi mosque behind Usafi Market, which the police raided and ransacked in late April, leaving a couple dead and scores arrested.
Yakubu’s family members say he was radicalised by a man they identify as Abdullahakim Lugoloobi, who they say headed the group at Usafi. Two of Yakubu’s brothers we talked to said Yakuby distanced himself from them
“He always referred to us as Kafir (non-believers). He grew a long beard, wore a kanzu and would never eat meat unless he had slaughtered the animal himself,” one of the brothers told Saturday Monitor.
Black sheep. One of his brothers related one of the stories that struck them about Yakubu when in 2013, the family lost one of their own who had been living in London.
“Yakubu branded us Kafir because the body had been brought in a coffin from London. He abused everybody and the next day after burial, he beat up one of our elder brothers. If there were no other people, it would have turned nasty,” one of the brothers said. He said since that incident, Yakubu disappeared from home and kept away from family members.

Conversation with suspected kidnapper in one of the audio clips

“Where have you reached with our agreement?” the male voice starts.
“We are working on it, sir,” the alleged Magara family member replies.
“Where have you reached?” the male voice interrupts.
“The money you asked, sir, I am about to raise all of it, sir,” the family member says.
“Hasn’t (John Fitzegerald) Magara returned?” the male voice asks, angrily.
“Magara has returned, sir,” the family member replies.
Kidnapper: If Magara (Father of the deceased) has returned, what does it cost Magara? Why has he not brought the money yet?
Female voice: “Excuse me, sir, now when he gets the money, where should he bring it, sir?
Kidnapper: “When? I will be telling you.”
Female (believed to be mamily member): “Is the child (Susan Magara) near you I speak with her, sir?”
Kidnapper: “ah ah, she is not here now.”
Female: “She is not there now!”
Kidnapper: “When do you bring the money? I do not want to hear about these other things.”
Female: “It is up to you to tell us the exact time and date you want the money, sir and we will bring.”
Kidnapper: “Are you ready now?”
Female: “We are not ready now, sir.”
Kidnapper: “So let us do this, prepare yourself, make sure you are fully prepared, then wait for my phone call.”
Female: “Yes, sir……”
Kidnapper: “You know these things, don’t dare include the police, do not inform any security agency and do not waste your time. Do not call Interpol, police or ISO [Internal Security Organisation]. I know this game, I have played it for long, otherwise I will do something to Susan that you will never forget until you die.”
Female: “I cannot, sir, I won’t do it, sir, no sir.”
Kidnapper: “Everything you try to do, everything, I know you, I have read the papers, you stay in Lubowa [in Wakiso District], I know your home in Hoima [district], your firm. Be loyal and cooperative or else you will get Susan in pieces should you even be lucky. If you mess around, you will not get a thing.”
Female: “Whatever you say, sir, we are at your mercy, just help us, sir.”
Kidnapper: “So what you should do, be prepared. I want that money tomorrow morning. Have you understood?”
Female: “Yes, sir.”
Kidnapper: “Tomorrow wait for my phone call. And by the way, you are the one going to bring the money. You will use the means I will explain to you, where you will put the money and whatever.”
Female: “Okay, sir.”
Kidnapper: “Do you have any questions before I go off air?”
Female: “I have no questions, sir. I only would want to beg you to reduce the ransom, it is too much for us sir…”
Kidnapper: “That money is very little… this is very little money for the people I am dealing with. I know them.”
Female: “Okay, sir.”
Kidnapper: “So prepare yourself and get ready for my call….”