Arua City! Shock as Locals Dump Body of 17-year-old Boy at Prisons Office

ARUA. People were on Thursday, September 5, 2024, treated to shock when locals dumped the body of a 17-year-old boy at the regional office of Uganda prisons in Arua city.

The angry locals aboard two tricycles dumped Felix Afeku’s body in a purple coffin at the entrance to the office of Leni Ndori, the West Nile Regional Prisons Commander at about 9:45am, accusing his officers of killing the deceased.

Afeku, a saloon operator and a resident of Prison cell in Kenya ward, Arua Central Division, Arua city was allegedly beaten to death by prison officers in the night of Tuesday.

He was beaten alongside one other boy, Gerald Andruga who is currently nursing injuries at Arua regional referral hospital.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Andruga said that on that fateful night at around 2:00am, Afeku started complaining of his burning chest due to ulcers.

He said as a result, they decided to go and fetch water for drinking in the nearby well next to the football ground outside the prison fence.

Andruga narrated that they were immediately arrested, handcuffed and taken inside the prison fence and seriously tortured by the prison wardens on duty claiming that they were thieves who normally steal their food crops in the garden.

In the process, Andruga noted that they were told to remove their clothes and ordered to roll down several times in an enclosed room as prison officers kept on beating them anyhow.

Afeku was pronounced dead at around 7:00am on Wednesday, September 4, 2024 after being taken to the hospital while Andruga was handed over to the police by the prison service and later taken to hospital.

John Mile, the deceased’s uncle with whom he was residing, said he unexpectedly received a call from police in the morning and responded only to find Andruga at police and Afeku’s body in the hospital.

Mile said the staff of the prison service would have arrested the two boys and taken them to police if they were suspected to be thieves.

Meanwhile, Isaac Abedriga, the father of the deceased, said the boy was his second born, adding that he had just completed primary education waiting for school fees to join secondary education next year.

He demanded the prison service to support the family in all the funeral arrangements.

But when contacted over the matter, Ndori explained that the two boys were found lying idle by the officers on duty at around 2am after being chased from Ediofe side and beaten by a mob.

He denied the allegations that the two boys were tortured by the officers of prison service, arguing that the officers rather intervened to rescue their life by taking them to the hospital and police.

The family of the deceased opened a case of murder and assault against Arua prison service at Arua central police station under SD reference 34/03/09/2024 as they demanded immediate action to be taken.

However, after waiting for support in vain, the locals teamed up with the family members to dump Afeku’s body at Ndori’s office.

The body was later picked by police who returned it to Arua hospital mortuary where it is now lying.

By press time, Salim Kumakech, the Arua RCC had called for an adhoc security meeting over the matter.