Policemen held over ivory (Uganda)
Policemen held over ivory (Uganda)
Gerald Tenywa, New Vision
March 31, 2021
See link https://www.newvision.co.ug/articledetails/96711 for photo.
Five people including three policemen have ended up in hot soup over
possession of wildlife trophies including elephant ivory.
According to Bashir Hangi, the Public Relations Manager at Uganda Wildlife
Authority (UWA), the suspects were arrested in two different incidences in
Kampala and Kapelabyong in Teso sub region. Hangi said they netted Samuel
Emanu alias Shaban, a police constable and Levi Eliu on March 16 in
Kapelabyong.
This was followed by another arrest of two Policemen, Boniface Okello and
Martin Ochen on March 20 in Kampala.
Okello and Ochen are still in police custody as an investigation into their
crime continues.
In the two incidences, UWA said they recovered ivory amounting to 43kgs and
28kgs bringing the total amount of ivory to 61kgs. “This is a wildlife
offence. We are talking about protecting wildlife species,” said Hangi. “It
does not matter whether the ivory is from Uganda or not.”
Hangi added, “As of now we have the suspects and exhibits and we are taking
them to Court. We asked them where they got the trophies and they could not
explain.”
UWA Public Relations Manager said the suspects could be sentenced to life
imprisonment under Uganda’s new wildlife Act.
In a related incident, Police is also holding a physically disabled man;
Owani Pop also called Mulema from Nwoya who was found with different
wildlife trophies including crocodile skin and tips of rhino horns. It is
alleged that Owani lost his legs in a previous nasty poaching encounter but
did not give up his ways.
Sources also say that he has cut out a niche as a kingpin in the
underground world of poaching where he spreads his tentacles to as far as
northern Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan and DR Congo. He was also taken to
Utility Court at Buganda Road on Wednesday to battle charges of illegal
possession trophies.
Elephants and rhinos are endangered species meaning that if nothing is done
to save their habitat or stop the wildlife trade in trophies, they will
disappear from the earth in the coming few years.