Police in Rukungiri are holding the former District Chairperson, Athanasius Rutaro over allegations that he was engaged in voter bribery on polling day for the Woman Member of Parliament.
Rutaro 73, a member of the opposition FDC was picked up by Police on Thursday morning in Katobo, in Nyakagyeme sub county in Rukungiri over what Police say was suspected voter bribery.
Ingrid Turinawe, who was heading the campaigns for the FDC candidate, Betty Muzanira in the highly contested by-election first reported about Rutaro’s arrest on Thursday morning.
According to Turinawe, Rutaro “was at Nyakagyeme sub-county headquarters waiting to witness the arrival of election materials”.
“A gang of military police brutally pulled this Respected senior citizen from his car leaving it abandoned. His where abouts not known yet,” she posted on her Facebook page.
When SoftPower News contacted the Deputy Police Spokesperson, Patrick Onyango who is currently camped in Rukungiri, he confirmed that Rutaro was being questioned by Police but insisted it was not an arrest. He says he was saved from a likely mob action.
He said he was picked from Katobo and was using a saloon car Reg UAH 228L.
“He’s not arrested but what we have is that he was at the polling station and you know right now the environment is charged. So they alleged he was bribing voters,” Onyango said in a telephone interview.
“We just had to remove him for his own safety. So we are with him at Police. This was today very early in the morning”.
Asked under what circumstances Rutaro is being held at Police and whether he is being questioned, Onyango said “As I told you, the environment is charged, so when somebody alleges that you have been bribing voters, we can not leave you in the public for your own safety”.
“The public can gang up and do anything on you,” he added.
However, when asked as to whether the suspect was in possession of money or other items with which he was bribing voters as alleged, the deputy Police spokesperson revealed that Police investigators are investigating that.
“Our investigators are doing that, I need not to go into details of that. I might jeopardize their investigations. But all I can say is we saved him from the mob. You never know,” he told this website.
On whether there are likely charges that Athanasius Rutaro could face, Onyango says it it is too premature to determine that.
Onyango said that so far, there have not been any cases of similar nature arising from the elections in Rukungiri district.