Abiriga’s bodyguard to be buried with full military honors

The army has said slain Arua Municpality Member of Parliament, Ibrahim Abiriga’s body guard and brother Said Butele Buga will be buried with full military honors as is for army officers.

Buga was gunned down alongside Abiriga while they approached the legislator’s home in Kawanda on Friday evening. However, the army was quite distant with the body guard, not providing a clear stand whether he was one of them or not.

Now Colonel Bernard Tuhame, the Commandant of 503 UPDF Brigade has clarified about the status of the late Sergeant Saidi Butele Buga, saying he was one of them and will be given a befitting burial.

“Buga Is going to buried Monday near his brother, we have a firing party like we always do it in the army to escort our brother when he is being buried,” Tuhame said.

“I was with him in Somalia, he was in battle group 20 and I was the battle group commander, I know him. But when we were coming from Somalia, honourable came to pick him from Entebbe and he never reported back, but yeah we know him and he has been part of us. We shall handle all the burial arrangements in an army way,” he added.

Drasi Salim Saleh, the follower of the late Ibrahim Abiriga, says Sergeant Buga joined UPDF in 2006 and was deployed in the 4th division in Gulu district. He says that after his appointment as RDC, Abiriga took over Buga as his bodyguard.

He says following the death of their elder brother, Ashraf Onziga, the former Speaker of Rhino Camp Sub County Buga was assigned to take care of the ancestral home. In 2016, Buga was sent to the peace mission in Somalia where he served until December last year.

According to Drasi, early this year, Sgt. Buga requested his superiors to assume the role of guarding Abiriga, which was granted. The late Buga is survived by a widow and five boys. The couple lost three other children.