BUSTED!12 arrested in another Arua anti-child trafficking swoop

BY ANDREW COHEN AMVESI

Barely one month after the arrest of Sabiri Siraji, a suspected child trafficker who had recruited over 40 children in Arua, the security team in Arua City again has rounded up 12 people in a similar operation.

Of the 12 arrested on Saturday from an office established in Mission Cell, Komite Ward in Ayivu Division, Arua City, 3 were officials of Christ Fourteen Generation Peace and Love in Africa International Projects Missionaries, an organization behind the recruitment while the other nine were some of the parents of the purported bursary beneficiaries rounded up to help police in investigations.

The three suspects were identified as John Stephen Apale, the West Nile Director of the organization, Consolate Eyotaru, the General Secretary and Suzan Bako, who works as a staff of the organization in Arua.

By the time of their arrest, the suspects had already collected millions of shillings from over 2,000 parents across the West Nile region, promising to pay the school fees of their children up to university level.

According to Alice Akello, the Arua Resident City Commissioner (RCC) who spearheaded the operation, the suspects were illegally picking shs45,000 per child seeking to be sponsored in secondary school and shs25,000 per child in Nursery and Primary school level.

“We are with conmen again! It is like we are not about to end; conmen are all over the place. The other day it was a Muslim organization, today it is Christ Fourteen Generation. We got wind about this Christ Fourteen Generation some time last year. They had started doing things here using a lady called Jacky,” Akello said.

“We called the Director who claims to be a Bishop in Kampala. He is called Kandekere Passy Andrew. He is allegedly a Bishop, when I called him and cautioned him about this organization, he threatened me that he was working for the State House Anti-Corruption Unit and he said was going to call them. I want to tell the world that the devil has found it hard to be on the roadside, the devil now is using the name of Jesus, is using the name of Christ to con the people of God,” Akello stressed.

She asked people to take charge of their little resources. Akello wondered how somebody can come from nowhere and start telling you to pay shs45,000 for secondary school sponsorship and shs25,000 for nursery to primary and people willingly pick such monies and pay without further investigations in such quack organizations.

The RCC said the suspects were operating in the city illegally, adding that there is no proof to show that the organization they were working for was a genuine one.

Akello noted that all documents found in the possession of the suspects were collected by police for further investigations into the matter. She also called for the arrest of Bishop Kandekere over the same.

Malon Avutia, the Ayivu Division Mayor who also participated in the operation urged the public to stop giving their money to dubious people.

“I want to pledge that as leaders, we are not going to stop here. We will continue to sensitize the community, we want to recover monies that were collected from the community by these people and we are going to have an interest in this case; both the leaders and members of the public. I want to be on record that our people here, when you are arrested for a crime and you are not prosecuted, tomorrow you are arrested and again you are not prosecuted, for the third time you appear in public, people will take you to the public court,” Avutia warned.

“We don’t encourage it as leaders but sometimes the public loses trust in us when we arrest such people and they end up not being prosecuted. For that reason, I call for thorough investigation and prosecution of these suspects arrested today,” Avutia said.

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