Nigerian detained over unlawful confinement of three MUBS female students

Police in Kampala have detained a Nigerian national on allegations of holding hostage three female students of Makerere University Business School (MUBS) for over 10 hours.

Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga, said Monday that on Saturday the suspect invited his Ugandan girlfriend, who he met five days ago to his home in Mutungo, Nakawa Division, in Kampala.

She reportedly visited along with two other female friends identified.
Mr Enanga said around 9pm, the students asked him to leave but he insisted that they stay around.
He reportedly confiscated their mobile phones around 10pm, locked them inside the house and left.

However, one of the girls had an extra phone, which she used to inform her other colleagues what had befallen them around midnight.

The students rushed to Kinawataka Police Station and filed a case explaining how their colleagues were being held captive by a man.

Kinawataka police sent a message to Jinja Road Policing Division, which immediately launched a hunt for the students throughout the entire night of Saturday.

However, the suspect returned around 7am on Sunday morning and released the trio. Mr Enanga said since police was already on the hunt, it traced the phones once they were returned to the students and switched on.

Police collaborating with victims located the suspect’s home leading to his arrest for unlawful confinement.

"We arrested him on charges of unlawful condiment. The suspect had actually invited his girlfriend who came in the company of two other girls at his rented home in Mutungo. The girls were there up to around 9pm. These are university students. He unlawfully confined them from 9pm up to 7am. For 10 hours, these three girls found themselves in a very vulnerable situation that anything could have happened on them. We managed to arrest the suspect, who's a Nigerian national," Mr Enanga said.

The suspect, according to Enanga, said he hadn’t abducted the students but he kept them in his house for fear that they could be hurt by thugs in the area if he had allowed them to move alone during night hours.

Police has cautioned young adults to be careful, saying the dating landscape has changed nowadays because anything evil can happen at any time.

The three girls have already recorded statements.

Early this year, two Congolese female students were found dead and locked inside a rented house at Kakeeka Mengo, Rubaga Division, in Kampala.

They were allegedly killed by their fellow Congolese male student accusing one of them of cheating on him.