A selfie photo of a Nigerian musician Stanley Omah Didia alias Omah Lay began circulating widely on social media on Sunday morning.
In the background, Omah Lay captured thousands of partiers. None of the revelers had a face mask or observed social distance.
It was later noted that Omah Lay had treated his Ugandan fans to a powerful performance in mega concert hosted at Ddungu Resort in Munyonyo, Kampala.
Ddungu Resort, is a stone throw away from Sudhir Ruparelia’s Speke Resort Munyonyo. This explains why a section of Ugandans particularly celebrities took to social media to rant how the show was organized at Speke Munyonyo.
But Tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia came out to clear the air that his resort never hosted these musicians.
Shortly after police announced that the singers and the event managers were arrested and detained at Katwe Police Station in Kampala.
The public, at first understood that Police was acting on social media pressure to take action following concerns from the public.
Videos recorded at the event show excited Ugandans singing to Omah Lay’s tunes and his colleague Temilade Openiyi, known as Tems.
The duo has popular songs that cut across the continent. The famous songs include Infinity, Lo Lo and damages.
What annoyed the public is how authorities could allow such an event at a time Uganda is registering soaring cases of COVID-19 and deaths.
In one week, Uganda has registered close to 5000 new cases. 221 people have so far succumbed to the disease.
Further, UgandanS wondered how Ministry of Health and Uganda Police could authorize a music concert when President Yoweri Museveni banned them since March when the virus broke out.
The Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Health Dr Diana Atwine told this website on Sunday afternoon that she was not aware of this event.
She said whoever organized it, was against Ugandans. She promised action.
Arrests
Uganda Police announced Sunday evening that three people had been arrested in relation to this illegal concert.
They include Ivan Ddungu, the manager of the place where the concert was held, Omah Lay the musician and Prim Kasana, Events Manager, who contracted Omah Lay to sing.
Police stated that the event took place at Ddungu Resort.
Police further said it is hunting for the area OC for failure to detect the criminal acts that took place in his area of jurisdiction.
The suspects are being charged with doing acts that are likely to cause the spread of infectious disease- COVID-19.
It also emerged that the female singer Tems had also been arrested contrary to earlier reports which suggested that she was hiding at Speke Resort Munyonyo.
Museveni Furious
This website has learnt that President Museveni who has been at the vanguard of fighting the virus by sensitizing Ugandans through televised addresses couldn’t believe when he watched videos of last night’s Ddungu Concert.
His biggest disappointment was staging a concert in the middle of a pandemic with no partiers putting on a face mask.
Museveni has a social media monitoring team which briefs him on every development that happens daily in Uganda.
Before taking action, the President asked his team to assess the public perception about the concert.
He was told that majority of Ugandans were up in arms criticizing government over this illegal event.
He immediately told his aide to pass over the message to Uganda Police to hastily arrest whoever was involved.
By press time, the singers were held at Katwe Police Station in the Regional Police Commander (RPC) James Ruhweza’s office.
