By Abubakar Bin Siraji
MBALE
One of Mbale’s most notorious cattle thieves has handed himself to police after realizing that residents had mounted a serious manhunt for him.
Forty year old Fred Bweri, a resident of Shiruri village in Bumbobi Sub County handed himself to Busoba Police Station on Tuesday 17th October, 2023.
Fred Bweri is said to have been behind several acts of cattle theft in the sub counties of Nyondo, Bumbobi and Bungokho in Mbale district and the neighboring districts but had managed to elude arrest for the last three years.
The chairman LC3 Bungokho sub county, Mr. Chris Mafabi Omir said the suspect is having contacts in abattoirs in different trading centers in Mbale district and Mbale City.
He told this reporter that handing himself to police was the easiest thing for Bweri to do because residents were seriously looking for him over the theft a cow of Mr Stephen Wamalero from Nyondo sub county.
Mafabi adds that when the suspect heard information that he is being hunted by residents, he jumped on a boda boda up to Busoba police station alongside two others whose names have been withheld for purposes of conducting further investigations.
He says that the fight against animal theft will not succeed if the farmers and local leaders do not help police in cracking down on the vice.
According to Mafabi, over 100 heads of cattle are stolen from the whole of Mbale district every four months. Some are recovered while others are never traced.
