Security has announced yet another breakthrough in not only the attempted assassination for Gen Katumba Wamala but also earlier murders of Maj Muhammad Kiggundu and AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi.
In November,2016 armed gunmen riding on motorcycles shot dead Maj. Muhammad Kiggundu and his body guard Sgt. Stephen Mukasa at Masanafu, a Kampala suburb and in March 2017, in a similar fashion, gunmen killed AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi , his bodyguard and driver were ambushed and killed in Kisaasi.
On June,1, 2021, four gunmen riding on two motorcycles sprayed the four star general’s vehicle in Kisaasi, a Kampala suburb killing his daughter and driver instantly.
On Tuesday, the deputy Inspector General of Police, Maj Gen Paul Lokech announced that the second suspected shooter in the attempted assassination plot on the Works Minister, Huzaifa Wampa, alias Kanaabe had been arrested from a hideout in Luweero.
“During interrogation, he admitted to participating in a series of planned and highly sophisticated murders and aggravated robberies within the country that led to the murder of 14 persons, the attempted murder of three people and three major aggravated robberies,”Lokech said.
He said that the suspect admitted to have participated in a 2017 incident in which armed robbers attacked staff of Denovo Bread Company as they collected cash from different points of sale where the bread is sold.
In the attack two police officers and the company driver were shot dead whereas shs37 million in cash was stolen.
According to police, the suspect also confessed to having participated in the robbery at Cheap Hardware in Nansana in 2019 in which two people were killed and shs300 million robbed as well as other robberies at City supermarket in Mpererwe where shs2.2 million was robbed and shs4.5 million from a nearby mobile money point.
However, according to a source privy to the investigations, the suspect said his group never participated in the shooting of Arua Municipality MP Ibrahim Abiriga and prosecutor Joan Kagezi who were killed in a similar manner.
Killing of suspects
Security has been blamed for the death of some of the suspects in the Gen Katumba attack that are said to have shot dead while trying to escape.
Many have said they should have been shot in the legs so as to be disabled.
In the statement released on Tuesday, Gen Lokech said the members of the group are hardcore and well trained people that security could not take chance while handling them.
“The public should know that we are dealing with a very deadly and militant group. In the counter terror operations that we conducted, most of the suspects were violent and confrontational, to the raids made on their hide-outs and during the recovery of the killer weapons, i.e. the two AK47 guns and a pistol and other relevant exhibits, from Nansana, Katooke, Matugga, Maganjo, Namuwongo and Kalule-Bombo. Two of our officers who were seriously injured are still nursing wounds,”he said.
