Claims of torture of suspects apprehended during anti graft protests are fabricated - Police

Police have dismissed as untrue, claims that the Kampala Metropolitan CID commander, Joel Ntabu was involved in torturing suspects arrested during anti corruption protests.

More than 100 youths were last week arrested over participating in the march to parliament, protesting against corruption.

A number of the suspects who are now out on bail have taken to social media to accuse police officers, especially Ntabu of superintending their torture.

Responding to the claims on Monday, Kampala Metropolitan deputy police spokesperson, Luke Owoyesigyire said the claims are unfounded.

Owoyesigyire explained that the office in charge of CID, his work is to supervise all CID officers at the Central Police Station to see that files go through the right procedure and sanctioned by the office of the DPP for allegations against the suspects  and not interrogation.

“He never does interviews or interrogations on suspects but his work is specifically supervising case files. You can come out with your evidence if you have it but we cant rely on tweets to say he did this or that,”Owoyesigyire said.

Some of the alleged victims said they had been slapped and beaten by Superintendent of Police Ntabu during their detention at Central Police Station after being arrested during the march to parliament protests.

“This man commanded a group of extremely harsh and angry officers who beat us as if we had wronged them personally. One officer saw me looking away as I asked them about our offence, came up from behind, sapped me and broke my glasses,” one of the alleged victims said on X.

Many others alleged to have suffered torture at the hands of the officer in charge of CID at CPS.

However, speaking on Monday, the Kampala Metropolitan deputy police spokesperson said whereas allegations are flying, no one has come out with concrete evidence to prove them.

“Go to CID headquarters or Uganda Human Rights Commission and make a formal complaint and we shall ably investigate our officer in case he participated in such an act,”Owoyesigyire said.

“CPS itself has cameras inside and we don’t have special rooms to interrogate suspects. Evidence will be readily available if at all the claims are true or not. We are only appealing to members of public against putting up misinformation against our officer . If you have anything against him, bring it forward because there are offices waiting to listen to you.”