Police have come out to clarify on last week’s bad gold trade deal that escalated to involve the Uganda People’s Defense Forces’ Chief Political Commissar Col Felix Kulayigye.
The case is currently being investigated under file number 21/06 13:41 at the Kampala Central Police Station where four employees of Matrich Holdings, a Kampala based Minerals Company are being held.
Yesterday Monday, the country learnt that Col. Kulaigye commanded a squad of armed police officers, some form the Flying Squad, who stormed the company offices in Ntinda and brutally arrested its employees before seizing its property, including 600gms of gold, and a car.
Kulaigye is said to have overseen this operation at the request his niece who claimed to have been robbed of her 2kiligrams of gold by the company employees and the seller, a Congolese national.
Police publicist Fred Enanga confirmed this morning that police officers rushed to the Ntinda offices to find that four of the company’s workers had already been arrested by Kulayigye’s squad.
He said these were found stripped naked, and that they dressed them up first before taking them to Ntinda Police station.
Enanga explained, “Police at Ntinda got a response call from Brenda while at Semawata road, where she alleged that she had been conned in a transaction of buying gold.
“She together with the Congolese dealer had gone to test and measure the gold on sale. After it was established to be genuine, the parties entered into a cash transaction where she made some part payment. It is at this stage that the staff at Matrich Holdings packed the gold for transportation in the car, before they were stopped to double check the contents only to find a half brick plus a sachet of salt.”
Enanga added that the Congolese man who Brenda claims to have connived with the company to steal her gold has since disappeared and efforts to track him down in place.
The Uganda Peoples Defense Forces yesterday vowed to subject Col Kulaigye to thorough investigations, since such behavior cannot be tolerated in the army.
“UPDF does not tolerate wrong doing and officers take individual responsibility for their behavior,” said the army spokesperson Lt Col Paddy Ankunda.