Police in Mbarara have arrested a police officer for allegedly ordering the arrest and embarrassment of a bride during a wedding ceremony.
Sergeant Richard Ngabirano, an investigating officer has been arrested, whereas four of his juniors including Caroline Adio, Atugonza Muganyizi and Moris Ayesiga are still on the run after the Saturday night incident in which they arrested Christine Natuhwera
“They caused a public nuisance act when they barged into a wedding function, arrested the bride on a sanctioned file of theft of shs8 million and dropped her at the Police Station in Mbarara and detained her. It happened on August,20 at around 8pm during Christine Natuhwera’s wedding reception at Kakiika Technical Institute in Mbarara ,”Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga said.
He noted that the incident stemmed from an earlier case in which Natuhwera, who working for Henry Mirembe was made a shs8 million loss as she worked as a bank agent, prompting the latter to take the matter to police where he reported a case of theft.
The case was investigated by police and later file forwarded to the Resident State Attorney in Mbarara who advised the duo to negotiate and reach a middle ground by Mirembe was not satisfied with this decision by the state attorney, prompting him to petition the offices of the regional DPP who later sanctioned the file again.
According to the police spokesperson, when the file was sanctioned again, the four police officers in collusion with the complainant sought to embarrass Natuhwera by embarrassing her during her wedding .
“The officers in collusion with the complainant caused the public nuisance act to probably embarrass this bride at her wedding reception and disrupt the entire function. When they went to the function at Kakiika Technical Institute in Mbarara, they arrested the bride who was in her changing dress and the complainant even provided means to have her transported fast to police,”Enanga said.
Describing the actions of the police officers disgraceful, the police spokesperson said the bride was left embarrassed infront of the groom, family, friends, guests and even the in laws who had come for the wedding.
“ What was supposed to be the happiest day of the newlyweds turned out to be a nightmare. Although it is the duty of officers to arrest and produce suspects in court over sanctioned charges, in this very matter, the act was reprehensible and based on poor judgment.It was not a life threatening situation that the police and complaint would lose anything by arresting her after the wedding.”
Following the incident, the Rwizi Regional Police Commander, Ezekiel Emitu ordered the immediate release of the bride before apologizing to the bride, groom, family, friends, guests and the church over the incident.
He also ordered the arrest of the police officers involved in the incident.
“We are charging them for discreditable conduct which upon conviction warrants dismissal from the force but we are also looking at criminal conspiracy where they could have colluded with the complainant in the matter,”Enanga said.
