Residents in Masaka District are living in fear since security personnel started conducting their operations in the area following brief postelection violence, which was staged by some opposition members to protest the election results that put the incumbent, Yoweri Museveni, in first position with over 58% and Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine in second position with over 54%.
Residents in the area reveal several people have since reported cases of missing relatives and friends at Masaka District Central Police Station and efforts by the police to trace the missing persons have proved futile.
One of the victims of these steadily rising and consistent cases is Patrick Ssejjengo, a resident of Kijjabwemi cell in Masaka town, whose relatives are missing after they were abducted by unknown people.
Ssejjengo to the Grapevine that; “A week ago, my brother Robert Gita was picked by suspected security operatives who were driving in a minibus motor vehicle commonly known as “Toyota Drone” with concealed number plates and has since never returned. We have searched in various police cells around the area in vain. I suspect that my brother could be detained in the Military barracks at Kassijjagirwa-Masaka.”
Another victim, Moses Kafeero, a resident of Kimwanyi village in Kingo Sub-county, is currently looking for his cousin brother who went missing on January 18th this year and accuses the army of being behind the on-going abductions in the area.
He said that one of police officers advised him to check with the army barracks at Kasijjagirwa after they failed to locate the suspect in police cells.
To his disappointment, nobody at the army barracks is willing to help or even talk to him for the many times he has attempted to reach out to them.
According to Kafeero, dozens of soldiers are going around the area abducting people for unknown reasons.
Jamiru Nsanja, a mechanic at Naluddugavu Motor Garage in Masaka town, claims that the abductors are mainly targeting known opposition political coordinators who are being accused of lawlessness.
He says that the operations have created a lot of fear and many of their colleagues are currently on the run for fear of being abducted.
However, Major Flavia Mulindwa Terimulungi, the spokesperson of the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) Armoured Brigade Kasijjagirwa-Masaka, confirmed that the forces are conducting joint operations aimed at arresting people who were planning chaos in the region concerning the recent presidential elections.
According to Mulindwa, security personnel are conducting intelligence-led arrests which she said are intended to maintain stability in the area.
Terimulungi, however, declined to reveal the number of suspects and remained unspecific on where they are being detained.
By John Kenny Adeya
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