Investigations into the brutal assassination of the former Arua Municipality Member of Parliament, Ibrahim Abiriga and his bodyguard and brother, Saidi Buga Kongo have stalled, reports URN.
This follows the failure by investigators at the Kibuli based Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) headquarters to find leads to guide their investigation even after analyzing the scene of crime, bullets, cartridges and a mobile phone recovered from the murder scene as well as the call printout from the victim’s phones.
Unidentified gunmen killed Col. Ibrahim Abiriga and his brother on June 8th 2018 when they sprayed their Volkswagen Beetle registration number UBB 706D with bullets as the duo approached their home in Kirinnyabigo in Kawanda in Wakiso District.
Abiriga, who was driving the vehicle, lost control after being hit and veered off the road before knocking a tree. Immediately after the incident, Police constituted a team led by Mande Agaba, the Head of the Homicide Department at CID Headquarters to investigate the killings under the direct supervision of the Director CID, Grace Akullo.
However, a more than a month after the attack, the investigators haven’t made any headway. The investigators have since shelved the file relating to the assassination and moved to other homicide cases.
The file contains the scene of crime report, ballistic report, postmortem report and call print out records. An investigator who is part of the team confirmed to URN that the file has been set aside, adding that they will resume the investigations when they find some leads.
“This case is just like that of Joan Kagezi. There is no lead at all and as investigators there is no way we can move forward without a lead,” the investigator said. The mobile phone recovered from the scene of crime, which was initially thought to have been dropped by one of the two assassins seen by eye witnesses riding on a motorcycle wearing black hoodies has since proved to be useless.
“There was nothing on the phone. It was for one of the residents in the area and they say it dropped as they were looking at Abiriga’s body,” the detective said. The phone is currently in the hands of the Internal Security Organisation (ISO).
Police spokesperson, Emillian Kayima asked for time to update himself on the case because commenting on the status of the investigations. “I need time to get the information on the investigation,” Kayima said
