Chris Nabugere, a renowned Ugandan tweep was on Tuesday afternoon abducted for allegedly tweeting fake news of Museveni’s death.
Nabugere was picked from his home compound at around 5:30 pm in a drone car registration no UBG 454B.
According to an eyewitness, Phoebe Rita Nabugere, a sister to Chris, the abductors seized her brother and his friends and started beating them with gun butts as they threw them in the vehicle.
“A drone with licence plate number UBG 454B just captured my brother and his friends from our compound while beating them up with guns. The fear running through me right now is immeasurable with all those “once they capture you, you never return” stories running through my head,” Rita tweeted after her brother’s abduction.
However, in a thread on his timeline, Chris narrated that at least nine (9) men abducted him and his friends, bundled them up in the drone van, and started beating them in turns.
“The group of about 9 men who were masked-up, beat us up with the back of their guns., while one was using a screwdriver trying to piece my friend,” he said.
He states that one of their captors was a Lubgara who kept on asking him to pronounce certain words in lugbara, failure of which earned him more beating.
Chris claims that the men who captured him and his friends were mistaken he could be a Cyrus who tweeted fake news of the president’s death at the end of last week.
“He asked “isn’t your name Cyrus.?” “aren’t you the one who tweeted that the president has died and added a picture of him sleeping?” I kept on saying my name is Chris and not Cyrus. And he slapped me saying I am lying to an officer. So, he got pliers and asked me for my ID,” he said.
“And I told him I didn’t have it because I was home when they picked me., so he tried to pull my nails., but because I bite my nails the pliers couldn’t hold anything and his other friend gave me a twin slap and said to me “answer the Afande when he asks you”” he added.
According to the narration by Chris Nabugere, the officers asked each one of them to call their relatives to send them money, before forcing them to reveal their mobile money pin codes.
The money was withdrawn off the phones “and then returned and said they have marked our faces and that they clearly know where I stay and shall be back if they hear anything in the press”.
“They then checked my Twitter to verify I wasn’t the one that tweeted and then also checked if I had recorded any videos of them in the short time, I was allowed to use my phone to make phone calls,” he states.
When the money session was done, one of the officers told Chris to sing the new song by National Unity Platform (NUP) principal Bobi Wine dubbed akatengo.
“But in all honesty, I couldn’t sing any lines from the song., not because I was being big-headed but because I didn’t know the lines. So, he poked me again and said I am trying to act smart that I don’t know the song. And then their leader received a call and after the phone call, so your friends have called your dad and you think you have survived. I just told him I am really sorry if I have done anything wrong. They then made all of us sing as they beat anyone who couldn’t recite the lyrics.”
So today at around 5:30pm as I was chilling with my friends at home., a drone picked me and my friends up with men dressed in plain clothes and holding guns.
A thread.., https://t.co/tyC4SFrdsy
— Cool Musoga ✊🏿✊🏻 (@ChrisNabugere_) June 30, 2021
He says the officers dropped them off around Mutundwe and ordered them to run as fast as they could or else risk being put back.
Officers arrested
According to Rita Nabugere, the officers have since been arrested with the help of Brig Chris Sserunjogi Ddamulira, the head of the Crime Intelligence Directorate.
“With the help of General Ddamulira, all the officers who participated in the act in the drone with registration number UBG 454B have been apprehended,” she said.
“Chris is back home. I’m relieved and very angry in the same measure. These “officers” who kidnapped him beat him up and his friends so bad. They claimed that he’s called Cyrus and had picked up on his tweets where he said that he hates the President. He said he’s not called Cyrus,” she added.
At the end of last week, there was a rumor being peddled on social media that President Museveni had been critically admitted to Nairobi Hospital and later Germany, while others indicated that the president had since died of COVID-19.
The news mostly peddled by accounts related to the National Unity Platform also was “confirmed” by Kenyan blogger Robert Alai.
