Arua: The slain legislator for Arua municipality Rtd Col Ibrahim Abiriga has been laid to rest at Rhino camp in Lukudu Village, Lower Madi Constituency.
Col. Abiriga and his brother, who doubled as his bodyguard, Said Kango were on Friday showered with live bullets by unknown gunmen a few meters to his home in Kirinnyabigo, Kawanda the outskirts of Kampala.
At the sendoff Col. Abiriga, president Museveni said Investigations are still on going , “but it’s possible that people would have hated him for being a carder of National Resistance Movement (NRM) and he was uncompromising although not crude but devoted”
Putting a blame to opposition leaders, Museveni asked why one would kill an elected leader of the people of Uganda? Why doesn’t the NRM kill opposition MPs? If you start a war with NRM, you will lose, nobody will start a war with NRM and win.
Museveni said that the slain military man was introduced to him by one Gen. Mustafa, and it’s from there that he appointed him the Resident District Commissioner for Arua district.
“They killed Kagezi, the Sheikhs, Kaweesi, Susan Magara and now Abiriga. It’s time really for us all to wake up and put an end to this and we have the capacity, this isn’t a military issue alone, an assassin is like a needle in a stack of hay. One does not need to bring many soldiers to look for the needle, all you need to get a metal detector,” he said.
Further said that all boda-boda riders will be required to get shining numbers on their helmets which one can see even during the night.
He vowed to look after the Abiriga’s family and help them to form a Savings and credit cooperative organisation (SACCOO) and inject in Shs50 million for family members to borrow and start various business ventures.
Earlier the secretary General for NRM Justine Kasule Lumumba,told Museveni that there is an ongoing hate campaign against him and members of the NRM party on social media and it must be controlled.
Mrs. Lumumba describe Abiriga as a person who loved NRM more than any other person, “Hon Abiriga is one person who would drive his car to come for by-elections without asking for fuel, out of the 36 by-elections we have had, he only missed four of them,”
In her condolence message delivered by Usuk county MP Peter Ogwang, the Speaker of Parliament condemned the gruesome killing of the legislator and offered Shs1 million to help the family.
“They said they would kill us, now they have started, they have been threatening us, now Abiriga is gone and I am also ready to die for the love I have for the NRM because I know I am also wanted,” he lamented.
However, in a special sitting convened yesterday to honor his contribution towards the development of his country legislators condemned that his killing saying the brutal death of rtd Col. Abiriga was a tragedy.
Both bodies of Abiriga and his brother Kongo were flown to Arua for burial however, on reaching Arua airfield, chaos ensued as angry mourners demanded to have a glance at the bodies which at the time were in funeral service vans.
They forcefully removed the caskets from vans, destroyed deceased’s property and they engaged into running battles with police. It is until Uganda peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) was called in to restore peace.
