Bukomansimbi District Police Commander (DPC) ASP Philemon Ameru has been held by authorities after IGP Gen Kale Kayihura sanctioned his arrest on Sunday.
He becomes the third officer to be caged in relation to the panga-wielding attackers commonly known as ‘Bijambiya’ that have terrorised Greater Masaka Region in the recent past.
On New Year’s Eve, attackers again invaded a number of villages in Bukomansimbi District, killed five people including a senior police official and gravely wounded twelve others.
This news website has learnt that the police chief Kayihura who has since pitched camp in the region ordered for arrest of some of his police men in the course of conducting investigations.
Whereas the details of the arrests are still scanty, police publicist Emilian Kayima confirmed ASP Ameru is behind bars.
“The explanation to his arrest will done hopefully today,” Kayima told this website on Monday morning.
IGP Kayihura is expected to address the media later Monday on matters related to the ‘terror’ in greater Masaka Region.
Ameru’s arrest comes against a backdrop of media reports suggesting that two other senior officers; OC CID and OC station at Mateete police station in Lwengo district were arrested on allegation that they released under unclear circumstances, a suspect in the New Year ’s Day attack.
The attacks prompted President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to visit the homes of victims last week from where he quizzed Latif Zaake, the Greater Masaka Region Police Commander, insisting that police could have detached itself from the locals.
Museveni on many occasions has pointed out that the police force is infiltrated by criminals. He ordered Kayihura to clean up the Force.
Late last year s number of senior police officers were charged in a Miltary Court and remanded to Luzira Prison
