North Kyoga Regional Police spokesman Michael Odongo revealed on Friday that Lira District security forces arrested an armed robbery gang dressed in military uniform on Thursday evening.

The suspects, he said, would have used the 14-day curfew announced by the president on March 31 to set up illegal roadblocks, where they could beat up and rob unsuspecting victims.

The curfew that began on April 1 (7:00 p.m. – 6:30 a.m.) aims to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

“As we speak, we have arrested five people. On Wednesday we arrested two and Thursday evening we arrested three, including a UPDF officer,” Odongo told reporters.

Police said among those apprehended: a 30-year-old UPDF soldier – a doctor attached to the Lira army barracks and a 34-year-old businessman.

The suspects currently detained at the Lira Central Police Station were in possession of army or police uniforms. They allegedly set up illegal roadblocks at Bar Uhuru in the Central Division, at Te-kulu and Jinja Camp in Ojwina Division, in Lira Municipality, where they arrested residents, beat them before taking them away. money.

“We have seen that there are people who take advantage of the curfew and that they also set up roadblocks disguising themselves in police or army uniforms and rob people,” Odongo noted.

“In most of these cases, you find that people are going to operate alone in dark corners and they manage to arrest people and get money from them,” he added.

Mr. Emmanuel Ebong Opeto, chairman of LC3 of Ojwina Division, said illegal roadblocks are always set up in dark corners where residents are arrested and stolen from their valuables.

“They are carrying out a parallel patrol to that of real security. They wait for the passage of the army and the police and take the opportunity to enter people’s homes and rob them,” he told the Daily Monitor.

The security, however, called for calm among the population, assuring them that they will get to the bottom of things.