By Abubakar Bin Siraji
MBALE CITY
Police in Mooni Mbale City have vowed to find and arrest a man who duped his wife and led her into debt, borrowing money to buy his release from alleged kidnappers yet he was behind the whole kidnap plot.
The man who lives with his wife in Mooni Ward, Industrial Division in Mbale City faked his own kidnap and successfully got three million shillings from his wife who thought he was in danger of being killed by kidnappers.
Identified as Peter Kimbugwe, the man in his mid 30s disappeared from their home in Nagudi Cell, Mooni Ward last week on Wednesday 15/11/2023 at around 9pm.
While leaving the house, Kimbugwe told the wife who has been identified as Katane that he was going to buy airtime from a pay way machine.
When it was about midnight, Katane became concerned. She called his telephone lines but they were all switched off. She spent the night trying to reach him but all was in vain.
The following morning, Thursday 16/11/2023, she filed a case of disappearance at Mooni Police Post and was registered as SD 16/15/11/2023.
Minutes after she had opened a case with police, she received a call from her husband using an unknown telephone line.
Katane said her husband sounded scared and seemingly under duress. He informed her that he had been kidnapped.
Katane updated police after she received the call, reporting that he had told her that the kidnappers wanted 3 million shillings and would kill him if she failed to send them the money.
Our source at Mooni police said they decided to hunt for the alleged kidnappers. All the investigations in the area was retrieved hoping to see Peter’s abductors but community members said Peter could not have been kidnapped but instead wanted to get money from his wife.
Police warned the woman not to succumb to the so called kidnappers’ ransom demands. She was tasked to keep updating police every time she received a call from the kidnappers in addition to noting down the time of every call.
Nevertheless, Katane did not heed to police’s advice of not sending money to kidnappers. She rushed and borrowed money from one of her close friends.
She topped up on what she already had and sent it on her husband’s phone.
In less than two hours, Peter resurfaced claiming he had been dumped in the forest behind Mt. Elgon Hotel in the same area of residence.
The next day Katane informed police that her husband had come back unhurt.
“We asked her to tell him to come and record a statement. She did not bring the husband and she never came back,” our source told us yesterday, Thursday, 23rd November.
“With police intelligence, there was no group captured grabbing a person on that night. We are sure it was self kidnap,” said police.
When police became suspicious about the kidnap and ransom narrative, investigators decided to visit the home in order to have an interview with the alleged victim.
However, Kimbugwe escaped minutes before police arrived.
