By Andrew Irumba
The Police have finally identified a civilian who was shot dead a few days back by a Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UDPF) soildier, who also shot dead a fellow soldier he was guarding with at a property in Nalukolongo, Kampala.
Private Peter Okia was arrested by cops at Nateete Police Station, where he had gone to report that he had shot dead a civilian who had disarmed his colleague identified as Private Leonard Chebet, before shooting him dead.
However, when detectives visited the scene of crime and conducted preliminary investigations, they decided to arrest Okia after he gave them contradicting statements abotu the death of the two people.
After conducting further investigations, the police have finally identified the body of a man who was shot dead alongside Pvte. Chebet.
Patrick Onyango, the Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson, identified the deceased as Yiga Gonzaga, a special hire driver.
Onyango revealed that investigators have since established that Yiga was shot by Private Okia alongside Chebet in Nalukolongo in Rubaga Division, Kampala.
Their shooting came to limelight after Okia reported a case at Natete police station in the wee hours of Monday morning claiming that an unknown thug had shot his colleague.
In his statement, Okia claimed that assailants who were dressed on civilian clothes had grabbed Chebet’s gun and shot him dead.
He also claimed that he had responded to the attack by shooting the alleged attacker dead.
But detectives from Nateete police station led by the officer in Charge – OC Muhammad Byansi rushed to the crime scene and realized that the shooting had happened more than 24 hours earlier.
They arrested Okia and locked him at Natete police station for interrogation.
Hours later after being interrogated, he changed his statement by saying that the incident occurred on Saturday night, not on Sunday night or Monday morning like he had alleged.
Onyango said they have since found out Yiga is a special hire driver at Kabawo zone in Ndeeba, in Kampala and his car was recovered a few meters from the crime scene.
“We are further questioning Okia to tell us what happened,” Onyango said.
Okia is currently regarded as the prime suspect in the double murder and is being interrogated for more information about the crime to help guide the police investigations.
