More details about a criminal gang that was arrested over a plot to assassinate the planning state minister, David Bahati, have emerged. Sources revealed that one of the suspects, a female, who was arrested from a hotel in Mukono town where she spent a night with a diplomat from a neighboring country, was interrogated.
She revealed how the group operates and the people who hire them. The suspect reportedly told investigators that they engage in malicious deals to settle scores, including luring high-profile citizens into death traps (Abiriga and Kaweesi) and that they are hired by foreign individuals and local politicians who want to destroy their rivals.
The suspect informed operatives that once they have been given names of their targets, the women dress seductively and seek appointments with the said targets, who are usually high-profile persons. The women go to the targets posing as people seeking help. However, they usually come with the male members lurking behind.
“Once they have established communication with their target, the men can come up and claim that the high-profile person is having an affair with their wife. At this point, they can blackmail the person to do whatever they want. In a worst-case scenario, the high-profile persons can be led into death traps,” a security source privy to the probe, said.
The Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence operatives arrested the lady along with a man, suspected to be her accomplice in a case where they are accused of plotting to assassinate Bahati. Security sources revealed that the suspected assassins approached Bahati’s driver, who they allegedly wanted to conscript into the plot to kill the minister.
“Sometime around April this year, these people approached the minister’s driver and asked him if he could join them on their ‘very sensitive’ mission. But when they told the driver that the mission was about a plot to assassinate his boss, the driver was stunned and immediately informed his boss (Bahati),” the source said.
Another female suspect, the source added, has since fled the country. The case is registered as GEF 33/19. The source further said the lady suspect, who is still under custody, listed some of the ministers who were on their target list. The development comes at a time when the Internal Security Organisation is also investigating a women’s gang that is reportedly used to lure bodaboda cyclists before they are murdered and their motorcycles have taken.