Orphan poisoned in family wrangle
What you need to know:
- The officer-in-charge of Malera Police Post, Mr Wilberforce Oile, said they will hunt Mr Oumo while Ms Akiteng would be transferred to Bukedea Central Police Station and charges of attempted murder preferred against her.
- Police in Kampala last month arrested the mother, brother and husband of the killed Luwum Street businesswoman Elizabeth Nakato in connection with her death.
A 46-year-old man in Bukdea District is on the run after he fled from a mob accusing him of involvement in poisoning his nephew in order to grab his late brother’s land.
Mr Joseph Oumo, a witchdoctor in Kachonga village in Malera Sub-county, sneaked out of Malera Police Post as an irate mob stormed the police demanding to lynch him. He was arrested together with his wife on Tuesday evening.
The Inoyogai clan chairperson, Mr Peter Ojilong, said the orphan, Denis Olemukan, 18, reported serious stomach complications on Monday after eating out at a restaurant run by Ms Betty Akiteng, his uncle’s wife.
Mr Peter Ojilong said the boy, who now cannot talk, is struggling for his life at a private clinic, and was to be transferred to Bukedea District Health Centre IV yesterday.
He said a clan meeting on Tuesday grilled Ms Akiteng, who confessed to receiving the poison from her husband, Mr Oumo, with strict orders to have the boy’s life ended if he was to have control over his late brother’s 10 acres of land.
“As clan heads, we then handed the two persons to the police; what happened is that the other sneaked out after,” Mr Ojilong said.
The officer-in-charge of Malera Police Post, Mr Wilberforce Oile, said they will hunt Mr Oumo while Ms Akiteng would be transferred to Bukedea Central Police Station and charges of attempted murder preferred against her.
The area village chairperson, Mr Simon Okiror, said Mr Oumo has for long been torturing the young man since the death of his father.
“Whenever the boy tried to put up a structure on his late father’s land, it would be destroyed by Mr Oumo and his three wives. The sequence of such acts are quite many to count,” he said.
Mr Okiror said Mr Oumo has more than 16 grown up children.
Mr Oile said the practice of grabbing land from orphans and using poison to settle land disputes are common in Bukedea.
Other incidents
Police in Kampala last month arrested the mother, brother and husband of the killed Luwum Street businesswoman Elizabeth Nakato in connection with her death. Nakato was abducted and her body dumped at the border between Wakiso and Luweero districts. Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson Luke Owoyesigyire said their preliminary investigations revealed that a dispute between the deceased and her family members, including her mother, over a plot of land in Kira Municipality led to her murder.
