ARUA CITY! Rising Cases of Insecurity Worry Local Leaders
Swadick Angupale Alemi, the Arua Deputy RCC. Photo Credit_Andrew Cohen Amvesi
ARUA. The rising cases of insecurity in Kenya Ward, Arua Central Division in Arua City are worrying the local leaders in the area.
The leaders said the criminal gangs, mostly in their youthful age, are now targeting school children and women going about their businesses.
Speaking to journalists early this week, Samari Ijaga, the local council (LC) II Chairperson of Kenya Ward, said with the help of police, they netted a total of 26 suspected criminals on a single Monday night and took them to Arua central police station in an effort of bring sanity in the area.
“Right now, you will not cross some key roads in Kenya Ward successfully and the worst part of it is that the bosses of the criminals are training the young ones because they know when these young ones are arrested, they may not appear in court. So, the first people to harass you are the young ones and if you over power them, of course, the big ones by the roadside will intervene and when security operatives come, they run away and you end up arresting the young ones and at the end, they are released,” Ijaga narrated.
He said the unfortunate bit of the criminality is that the thieves are now targeting innocent women and school children of the nearby Arua Parents primary school.
“They are snatching their bags, removing their jackets and footwear. They remove these things away and sell them. That is the extent they have reached. Imagine your child goes to school with a bag but comes back home without it and even without shoes and jacket because it has been removed by these thieves, which is so absurd!” Ijaga said, adding that the thieves also target women who go to the market very early in the morning and those who return late from the market.
He noted that the criminals causing unrest for people in the ward are mainly in between the age bracket of 12 to 25 years of age.
Ijaga cautioned parents to take good care of their children, lest they will end up being arrested if found stealing from people during the ongoing operation to clean up the ward.
Swadick Angupale Alemi, the Arua Deputy Resident City Commissioner (RCC), said they have already taken note of the Kenya Ward challenge in their security meeting, promising that the criminals disturbing people are going to be dealt with by all means.
He instead urged the public not to kill the suspected thieves but hand them over to police upon arrest so that the law can take its own course.
Angupale said they are also devising a means of exposing the thieves with evidence so that the public is aware of their names, their parents and the villages they come from both in town and in their home district.
The RCC remained optimistic that if that is done, many will backoff stealing for fear of being exposed up to the village level.