The state prosecutors on Thursday played in court a police CCTV camera footage that depicted some of the scenes during the kidnap of social worker, Maria Nagirinya and her driver, Ronald Kitayimbwa in 2019.
Testifying as the 19th prosecution witness, Superintendent of Police, Nixon Ogwang, 36 told court that in 2019 he was attached to Naguru police headquarters as the head of CCTV camera investigations and an expert in video analysis.
“I got a call from my supervisor directing me to make a follow up on a case of kidnap and murder of two people including Maria Nagirinya and Ronald Kitayimbwa and get video evidence from CCTV cameras to support investigations,”Ogwang said.
He noted that he later proceeded to Katwe Police station where he teamed up with the investigating officers and proceeded to the camera room to view what exactly had happened before he retrieved several videos for analysis.
The master’s degree in computer forensics holder told court that his main aim was to observe the suspicious movements of persons, vehicles and motorcycles on the fateful night to see if the investigators could get leads to perpetuators of the kidnap and subsequent murder of the duo.
To ensure this, the expert in video analysis made use of a police CCTV camera located at Community trading centre, 200metres away from Nagirinya’s home, the place where she was kidnapped from as she returned home.
The footage
In the footage captured by the police’s intelligence reading surveillance camera, Nagirinya’s vehicle, a Toyota Spacio, registration number, UBA 570V was captured at 11:47:45 pm as it flashed its right hind indicator to show it was branching off to the gate.
A few minutes later the vehicle finally branches off to the gate where it comes to a halt.
Meanwhile, at 11:51:51, two motorcycles are seen coming from the opposite direction and also stop at the exact spot(gate) where the Toyota Spacio had made a stop.
However, since it was at night and the nearby CCTV camera was only 200 metres away, the exact events of the kidnap were not captured.
The vehicle was later at 11:53:45pm captured being driven away from the gate , headed towards the junction where it has passed earlier and proceeded in a similar route it had come from and went to an unknown destination.
At 11:54:39 and 11:54:42, the two motorcycles are captured following closely behind the vehicle at it made its way to the unknown destination.
The vehicle would later at 00:52:26 be captured by an automatic number plate recognition camera at Kinawataka being driven by a person later identified as Copriyamo Kasolo, the key suspect in the case towards Kireka.
Whereas the camera which captures only still photos, it was able to see the co-driver’s seat was empty but could not capture the occupants of the behind seat of the vehicle.
The Police CCTV camera footage was on Thursday admitted as a prosecution exhibit.
The trial judge, Isaac Muwata adjourned the trial to March, 29, 2023.
The case
Five suspects including Coporiyamu Kasolo alias Arsenal, Johnson Lubega aka Manomano, Sharif Mpanga, Nassif Kalyango alias Muwonge, and Hassan Kisekka alias Masadda, are facing six counts of murder, kidnap and aggravated robbery, offences committed in 2019 at Lungujja, a Kampala suburb before dumping the bodies in Nakitutuli swamp along the Mukono-Kayunga road.
Their co-accused, Isaac Ssenabulya, alias Kisunsu earlier pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 40years imprisonment.
He was used as a state witness.
Chief State Attorney Jonathan Muwaganya and Timothy Amerit lead the prosecution by the state whereas Julius Sserwambala is the lawyer for the accused.
