We are  combing social media for videos, audios, posts speculating Oulanyah’s death, says Police

Police have kick started gathering evidence linking several members of the public to speculations about the death of Speaker Jacob Oulanyah.

Following Oulanyah’s death last week, his father, Nathan Okori told mourners in Omoro that his son had been poisoned and the narrative has since gained ground with many people, especially on social media have since made the same claims.

Addressing a weekly press briefing at the police headquarters in Naguru on Monday, Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga said the Criminal Investigations Division headquarters at  Kibuli have opened up a case file as investigations into the speculations kick off.

“We have opened a case file at CID where all persons who were speculating the cause of death of the Rt. Hon.  Jacob Oulanhay will give us statements. What we are doing right now is transcribing footages, videos and audios. We are trolling all digital platforms and getting evidence from whoever was coming up with whatever speculation over the death,”Enanga said.

The police spokesperson explained that of late, it has become a common platform for members of the public, especially on social media to speculate about the deaths of prominent persons despite postmortem reports indicating the exact cause of death but Enanga said this will not be tolerated.

“These days, it appears if a VIP dies, it can’t be due to natural causes but something else. That should stop because medical experts are available to indicate the cause of death and therefore there should be any speculations.”

According to Enanga, after Oulanyah’s burial , police will then start recording statements from people who made utterances of speculation to see the next course of action.

Asked whether Oulanyah’s father, Nathan Okori who started the speculation about his son’s death will too be summoned for questioning, Enanga said all this will be determined after the burial of the deceased Speaker of Parliament.

“The list(of those to be questioned) will be availed after the burial to see who will record statements.”

The development comes on the backdrop of a warning by President Museveni that those speculating about   Oulanyah’s death would soon be invited to help police in its investigations over the matter.

“I would like to warn some people who are in the habit of taking advantage of problems to make cheap politics. And actually we’re going to go for them because I have heard some people saying some people killed Oulanyah. The police will come and ask you to give them some information because Oulanyah did not die in a private home,” Museveni said on Friday at Kololo independence grounds.