URU bans Aredo for 10 months, Were not contented

The Uganda Rugby Union has suspended Gabriel Aredo from all its activities for 10 months following a September 28 disciplinary hearing into an incident where the player-coach assaulted Vision Group journalist Johnson Were.

The letter released yesterday was signed by URU’s secretary Peter Odong and was backdated to Monday. The ban also started on September 29.

“URU regrets this incident and condemns (it) in the strongest terms possible,” Odong wrote before adding that “mitigation measures have been devised to avoid a repeat of this incident in all our activities.”

Were was on duty covering the Kyabazinga 7s on September 25 when he was rugby tackled for rightly concerning himself and his lens in a scuffle between Aredo’s brother Erasmus and Heathens plus Rugby Cranes legend Alex Mubiru in an area around the touchline.

Erasmus, who was chairman organizing committee of the tournament, took issue with Mubiru being too close to the touchline for a fan ‘coaching’ his side in the semifinal between Heathens and Kobs.

According to a video that went viral on the day and several eyewitnesses, a fight ensued between the two forcing Gabriel to come in as his brother’s keeper.

But the latter also took exception to Were capturing the ugly incident and charged at him with the intention of grabbing his camera, hence the physical assault which left the camera lens seriously damaged.

Were disappointed

“The ban is a good step but only helps URU’s image as they were the organizers and the ugly incidents took place in front of their chief guest – the deputy prime minister of Busoga Kingdom,” Were, who is still pursuing the matter with the Police, told Daily Monitor.

“But what about my gadget? My family is starving because I cannot work as I was doing before and if the statement does not talk about that, it means URU do not care for anything beyond their image.

I have talked to many parties including Aredo, who called me when I was in hospital the next day but my message to them has been to replace the body of my camera.

All other issues like the embarrassment they caused me and the harmony between us can be discussed easily.

But my camera cannot be switched on anymore, the hood of the lens is broken and there is a crack on the metre. Unfortunately, I have also not been able to test if the lens still works because I have not met any of the colleagues that have Canons, most people use Nikkon cameras,” Were, who had not seen the statement by the time we contacted him, explained.