Kira Road Police have arrested five men posing as middle men for allegedly extorting money from unsuspecting residents in the guise of helping to secure police bond.
The five have been identified as Ambrose Obura, Rodgers Habaasa, Edgar Abaine, Ivan Turinawe and Oswald Oketch.
DPC Kiira Road ASP. Peace Nansaba said that they acted upon receiving reports about the said group two weeks back.
She revealed that an undercover operative was then planted around the station.
Discoveries show that when a person comes to police, this group has got experience in determining by the look on one’s face that one needs help. One is then made to believe that they can mediate between OC CID or DPC for the release of a relative or friend on bond.
When attempts to release on police bond fail, these unsuspecting people end up coming to confront the officers for having received money and failing to satisfy their needs only to realize they have been duped.
Through this kind of method the thugs are estimated to have conned a sum of money equating to a tune of 15 million from the unsuspecting victims between the month of October and December however 4.4million has so far been recovered.
These culprits always pose as detectives, phone trackers, vehicle trackers etc. All suspects were arrested as they turned up to collect the remaining balance of payments.
It’s said that some of these suspects claim to be informants for security organisations, others working in the inner circles of the force and others to be police officers.
Research reveals that majority of the people fear approaching the right offices with a feeling that only people close to those officers can approach them.
Also weakness in some administration structures has greatly attributed to this vice in a sense that they know these conmen that are on a daily basis loitering around the police units, not sharing any important security information but still do nothing about it.
More so it’s believed that some of these conmen, case brokers, middlemen are attached to high profile and influential people hence they end up using that as a reason to intimidate officers in charge and influence on how some cases should be handled.
“Police bond is absolutely free and everyone’s right. Anyone following up on any case should directly approach and contact the officers in charge of respective offices than putting trust in middle men who are always waiting in corridors for which victim to prey on,” ASP. Nansaba Peace said.
