Police is detaining three people suspected to be involved in a web of kidnappings and murder. The 3 people including a woman and two men, one of them a UPDF officer were arrested in Entebbe after they kidnapped a man, robbed him and attempted to kill him.
Those arrested are Brenda Nyanzi, Julius Arinda a soldier attached to the UPDF Marines and Sadam Ainamani.
Police spokesperson AIGP Asan Kasingye disclosed to the press on Monday that the 3 marked a man identified as Victor Kibira who has been involved in a love relationship with Nyanzi, and later extorted money from his friends while he was held hostage.
Brenda Nyanzi had just returned from Oman in the Middle East where she had been working when the two suspected criminals; Arinda and Ainamaani used her as bait to get to their target (Kibira). She later got the attention of Kibira, the two excanged contacts and began to communicate.
“On the fateful day, Nyanzi picked Kibira in a Toyota Xtrail vehicle but inside the car were the two men [Arinda and Ainamani] hiding. So, Kibira was driven to a place in Kitala where the 3 tortured him,” Kasingye told journalists.
They used electrocution to torture Kibira after calling many of his friends from whom they extorted money amounting to Shs 600,000.
“When Kibira had no more money to give, they tried to kill him but the lady pleaded that he is spared,” Kasingye said, based on reports he said were still premature.
However, when police quizzed the 3 suspects upon arrest on who owned the Toyota Xtrail, they all denied ownership which prompted police to run a search on the car.
Coincidentally, Police discovered that the vehicle belonged to a man who had been kidnapped from Iganga earlier this year and later taken to Bushenyi where his captors drowned him in a lake.
Kasingye said that the deceased, identified as Eduardo Esaike Patrick was kidnapped and taken to Lake Lutoto in South Western Uganda “and the people who kidnapped him tied his legs and asked him to swim to the other side of the lake where they placed his lover”.
“Patrick’s phone was recovered after his death and it was found to contain the image of this same woman [Brenda Nyanzi],” Kasingye said.
Police suspects that the same three suspects were involved in the kidnap and murder of Eduardo Esaike Patrick whose vehicle they stole. Kasingye said the trio is suspected to have masterminded several other kidnaps and extortion of money from the hostages.
He cautioned men against easily falling for strangers that are likely to pose danger to their lives.
