Strangers steal guns, bullets from police

LAMWO. At least four guns loaded with more than 300 rounds of live ammunition have gone missing from Agoro Police Post in Agoro Sub-county, Lamwo District, security officials have revealed.
The guns are suspected to have been stolen by unknown people on Monday morning from the police post armoury, some 25 kilometres from the porous South Sudan border.
The Lamwo Resident District Commissioner, Mr Jonathan Rutabingwa, told Daily Monitor in an interview on Tuesday that the guns were stolen while police officers were on guard.

He said three of the stolen firearms were submachine guns [SMG] and one PK general-purpose machine gun.
“The loss of these guns is a big problem to us [security officials] and the locals. The guns are out there and we are not sure of the people possessing them or whether they will be used for something wrong,” Mr Rutabingwa said.

A police officer, who declined to be named, told this newspaper that there was a misunderstanding on Sunday between the female officer in charge of Agoro Police Post and her male junior officer over unclear reasons prior to the disappearance of the guns.
“The officer-in-charge of the police post had just spent a few days after being posted here when she got in trouble with another police officer deployed at the station. They never got along very well, all the time they were quarrelling and his junior kept on promising something bad will happen at the police post,” he said.

Mr Rutabingwa said four police officers, including the officer-in-charge of the police station, have been arrested and detained at Lamwo Central Police Station to help in investigation. He did not name the suspects. The Agoro Sub-county chairperson, Mr Denis Onyon, said the locals in his area are now living in fear of possible attacks on them.
“This area has been a hotspot for cattle rustlers who cross from South Sudan and terrorise locals, we don’t know whether these stolen guns have ended up in their hands or not,” he said.
He called on security personnel to offer more protection for the locals and their properties.

Mr Rutabingwa said they have already heightened security to help trace whereabouts of the guns adding that locals are being sensitised to be cautious during this time.
“The UPDF and Police have been deployed on the ground to guard the people and also look out for where the guns could have been taken. Checks have been carried in the nearby bushes but there is no trace of the guns yet,” he said.
The Aswa River Region Police spokesperson, Mr Jimmy Patrick Okema, said in a telephone interview that he was on his way to the scene and promised to provide more details later.

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