KAMPALA-UGANDA/NEWSDAY: The Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) security cameras on various Kampala metropolitan roads have captured thugs surveilling and trailing clients from banks and other financial institutions.
Uganda Police acting Director for Information Communication Technology (ICT), Yusuf Ssewanyana released CCTV footage showing a boda-boda rider who stages outside banks or sometimes forex bureaus purposely to alert his group on who seems to have withdrawn huge amounts of money.
In one of the incidents, a woman driving a Toyota Wish whose number plate has been concealed since the hunt for the thugs is on, was surveilled from the time she entered and left KCB branch at Lugogo shopping centre.
The boda-boda rider is seen in the footage surveilling and trailing the woman from Lugogo up to Sonde where she parked outside a supermarket. The boda-boda rider is seen seemingly texting his group who also arrived in a Toyota Wish and parked adjacent to the woman’s car.
Dressed casually and others in reflector jackets, the group used metallic implements to break into the woman’s car and removed a bag that was reportedly containing Shillings 50 million.
Police spokesperson Fred Enanga has since revealed that crime intelligence working with ICT team have successfully tracked for the boda-boda rider who has been doing the surveillance and trailing job.
“Our CCTV command centre identified the motorcycle number plate UFG 326Z and its rider Jimmy Mawazi has been arrested. Muwazi has actively been surveilling unsuspecting clients from banks up to the stage where they park their vehicles to either go shopping or make stopovers for lunch or drinks or in the evening when they go to gyms or saunas,” said Enanga.
Muwazi’s motorcycle according to ICT team, has been cited in at least 20 robbery incidents targeting bank, mobile money and forex bureau clients. The longest break into and robbery of money from a vehicle according to CCTV videos, took a minute while most of them have last between 25 and 50 seconds.
Not only bank clients are being targeted but even other people driving cars suspected to be carrying money or valuables. Enanga says some vehicles have been broken into while in parking at supermarkets, gyms, saunas and places of worship. Security says the thugs are exploiting the weakness of not having real time security surveillance at busy public and shopping places.
“We also want to encourage other business centres to have a security guard doing real time surveillance. It is the best way we can manage car break ins. They have devices that can disrupt the alarm systems and disable it. Having an alarm may not help,” added Enanga.
Since alarms in cars, supermarkets or banking centres can be re-programed with the powerful gadgets the thugs are having, Enanga emphasizes on having full time security guards surveilling the parking yards but also men having a person monitoring CCTV at the places 24/7.
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