The Uganda Police is holding in custody five suspects at Arua Central Police Station (CPS) over theft of the Arua Regional Referral Hospital ambulance, The Ugandan Wire can confirm.
The suspects including a dental assistant, a security guard at the hospital, a driver of the hospital, a driver attached to Office of the Prime Minister, and one other ally of the four were arrested between December 2, and December 5, 2021.
According to police spokesperson for West Nile SP Angucia Josephine, upon arrest and interrogation by the joint forces of Police, ISO and CMI, the suspects confessed to have stolen the ambulance and taken it to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
“However, they claim that they have not yet received money for the sale of the ambulance,” Angucia said.
The theft of the ambulance dates back to March 27, 2021 when the ambulance in question, a Toyota Land Cruiser number UG 6812M went missing from Arua hospital parking yard.
After the case was reported at Arua CPS, police commenced investigations and immediately arrested four night guards on duty at the hospital on the fateful day. The guards were later prosecuted to courts of law from where they pleaded not guilty and the case has been going on up to date.
Since then, police says, intelligence-led investigations have been going on with a view of recovering the ambulance and to arrest the perpetrators.
“The ambulance is yet to be recovered but inquiries are ongoing so as to recover it,” Angucia said.
Police have also come out to dismiss rumours circulating on social media that a doctor at the hospital was among the five suspects detained.
Furthermore, the police debunked a story in one of the local publications which suggested that suspects had confessed to police, selling the ambulance at Shs 300,000,000 because they thought the government was changing in May and so needed exile money.
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