Some of the items confiscated by police from Mukono Municipality Member of Parliament have gone missing. On Wednesday last week, police raided Total petrol station in Kinoni town council and arrested Betty Namboze, the Mukono Municipality MP and other Democratic Party supporters.
They confiscated two Dell laptops, two video cameras, a digital photo camera, three tents, mattresses, shirts, a wallet containing shillings 2.63 million and her parliamentary identity card. Police also impounded Nambooze’s vehicle registration number UAR 107H and towed it to Masaka central police station. On Sunday, police handed back to the MP her vehicle, 2.63 million shillings saying the laptops, video cameras and photo camera had disappeared without any trace.
Simon Peter Wafana, the Southern Regional police commander says despite the fact that they found other items intact, the laptops, video cameras and digital camera were missing. He says they are investigating circumstances under which the laptops could have been removed. Wafana says despite the fact he didn’t see the laptops himself, he wants to find from the arresting officers what could have happened.
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But Betty Nambooze will not have any of this. Nambooze has threatened to sue police for illegal detention and theft of her laptops. She explained that to URN that the failure by police to open any charges against her and her colleagues is a clear indication that they are being persecuted as opposition leaders.
Nambooze says that although police has given her some money is promising to buy her new laptops she is not happy with the arrangement, because her computers contained lots of useful information.
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Emmanuel Mbabazi, the Southern Region Criminal Investigations officer blames the detectives from Kampala who arrested Nambooze for the mess. He says that when the cops arrested Nambooze and her colleague they didn’t take not of the items they impounded from her vehicle and where they were taken for custody.
