Investigative journalist, and Chief Editor of ‘The Investigator’, Stanley Ndawula has been released by ISO after spending one and a half days in their custody.
Ndawula was abducted late on Friday night from his Yaya Lounge, a night hang out along Bukoto street by operatives of ISO. However, officials of ISO neither denied nor confirmed having him in their custody .
Stanley told SoftPower News on Sunday that he was released at around 5pm on Sunday. He said he was detained in Kyengera by IS0.
He also said that the security organization was apologetic to him for the manner in which he was arrested as well as the motive behind the arrest. According to Stanley, operatives of ISO who had held him said they had been misinformed.
“On Friday at around 12 midnight or so, I had many customers here at Yaya Lounge. Usually I escort customers to the gate. There was a guy who had been drinking at the counter, so, I was talking with him. He was thanking me for the service,” Stanley said in a statement from Yaya Lounge on Sunday.
“As we talked, some other people, some of them in civilian attire and others in military fatigue grabbed me. One of them slapped me and another pointed a pistol on me. He told me I was under arrest,” he added
He says he was driven to Kyengera from where, he was taken before the ISO Director Frank Bagyenda ‘Kaka’ on Sunday.
In his interaction with Kaka, he said, it appeared that the ISO Director had been misled to believe that Stanley was behind a certain news story which was carried by one of the online news sites.
Although he said he was not physically harmed, he revealed that the actions of the people who arrested him tortured him psychologically.
“I was embarrassed by how they treated me – especially slapping me and pointing a gun on me. I didn’t expect such actions in my country. But as a journalist, some things, you just let go because we all need each other,” he said.
He thanked all those that stood by him during the period when he was under ISO.
He wondered why security organizations continue to work in an arbitrary manner which taints the image of the government among the citizens.
Last year in October, Ndawula and another reporter of the same media outlet named Robert Ndawula were arrested over charges relating to offensive communication.
He was later charged in court with disturbing the peace of former Police boss, Gen. Kale Kayihura, now in detention.
According to the charge sheet by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Mike Chibita, the two were accused of having an intent to defame the IGP in an article in which it was purported that the police boss was murdering his own officers.
Ndawula’s publication had consistently undertaken deep rooted investigations exposing the ‘dark dealings’ of the police apparatus in its operations. Some of the revelations had pinned senior officers for aiding unlawful and off-the-books activities, some criminal.
