Following the incident, the police launched a general enquiry which led to the arrest of Jinja Deputy Town Clerk Peter Mawerere, among other technocrats over fraud and failure to safeguard government equipment. Further investigations also led to the arrest of the city’s Senior Law Enforcement Officer Denis Bimbona.
Magoola had earlier on fled into hiding when some motorcyclists attempted to lynch him for selling old motorcycle spare parts but failed to mention his suppliers raising suspicion that the parts are from stolen motorcycles. This prompted detectives to launch a manhunt for the suspect leading to his arrest on Wednesday night.
The raid, followed intelligence information about a stolen taxi registration number UAQ 723E that was being vandalized inside the garage. Two patrol vehicles full of armed personnel were dispatched to the garage last evening, and, the motor vehicle was found without an engine and tyres.
According to eye witnesses, fire broke out at 3am on Friday and is suspected to have started from a charcaol stove that was inside one of the restaurants. Among the things that have been burnt include auto spare parts, over 500 timbers, refrigerators, computers and speakers that were in one of the video libraries and food items.
Gilbert Kiracho, the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist USMID / Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development, acknowledges the challenges but says the work in Soroti is almost complete.
Uganda police Force has a total of 30 ambulances procured between 2011 and 2016 by the Directorate of Medical Services to help in transporting accident victims, sick and injured police officers as well as sick suspects in police custody.