Security guard pleads guilty to shooting dead Bugiri Imam before army court

Biasaali Mugoya, 40, a supervisor at SGA Uganda Limited, a private security company has pleaded guilty to shooting dead Bugiri cleric, Sheikh Masudi Mutumba who was killed last month.

On February, 14,  Sheikh Mutumba, 60, the Iman for Iwemba Mosque in Iwemba parish, Iwemba sub-county in Bugiri district who was shot dead as he returned home from prayers at around 9:45 pm.

On Wednesday, eight people mostly from the same family were arraigned before the General Court Martial in Makindye chaired by Lt. Gen. Andrew Gutti and charged with the gruesome murder of the Muslim cleric contrary to section 188 and 189 of the Penal Code Act.

The other accused persons included James Baliddhusa, a Local Defence Unit personnel, John Mary Jagenda, a special hire driver and resident of Lubowa Sseguku in Wakiso district, Alex Mugoya a security guard with Harsh Security Company, Amos Kojja , Sulaiman Konta,  Charles Mwandha and Ashraf Mugoya.

The group, however, denied the charges save for Mugoya who admitted to having pulled the trigger on the fateful day.

“Yes, I personally killed him alone for the pain he had caused me,”Mugoya told court in Lusoga without explaining in detail what he meant.

Following his confession, the court seemed not satisfied and gave him another chance to rule out any doubt on what he had told the panel but Mugoya repeated the statement for the second time saying he had pulled the trigger on the fateful day.

The group was however remanded to Luzira until March 16, 2020.

The case

On the night of February 14, Sheikh Mutumba was shot dead by an unknown assailant as he returned home at night.

The deceased’s 10-year-old child said he had seen an unknown person trailing them but never bothered to find out who he was and that when they reached home, the Imam received a call and when he went out for better network, he was shot in the head before the assailant took off.

The Imam was shot in the head and died instantly according to investigators.

Despite a number of them being civilians, the group was arraigned before the army court because one of the co-accused, Balidhusa Mugoya is Local Defence Unit personnel and is subject military law by virtue of section 119(1) (h) of the UPDF Act 2005.

Section 119(g)  of the UPDF Act 2005 stipulates that every person otherwise not subject to military law but aids or abets a person subject to military law is liable to be tried by the army court.

In the past, a number of civilians and other people ordinarily not members of the defence forces have been arraigned before the army over several offences as one of the ways reduce criminality orchestrated using guns in various parts of the country.