By Godwin Abedican

Arua

Following the arrest of Siraji Sabir aged 27, an Alur by tribe, who claims to be a resident of Kawanda in Kampala, who has been masquerading as the chief executive officer of Al- Rahman Islamic primary and secondary school a mixed day and boarding school purportedly located in Bombo by the police in Arua city, there have been concerns raised over how the security operatives especially the police have overseen him being released from prison after previous arrests.
Sabir was netted in Arua city and by the time of his arrest he was residing at Hotel Arua located in Anyafio after a tipoff from whistle blowers who informed the authorities that, Sabir was in custody of over close to fifty (50) children whom he had kept in another hotel identified as Continental within central division ready for transportation to Kampala. The parents of the children among whom are some of 3 and 5 years old kids were reportedly duped that the children would be taken to Al- Rahman Islamic primary and secondary school to study for free.

According to the children, they were made to pay two hundred thousand shillings each through the bank which money was to be used to purchase for them mattresses and cases for going back to school, but on the contrary Sabir is being demanded by one unidentified dealer in metallic cases for having picked 4o cases without paying and over 20 mattresses were also found at continental hotel.
Narrating their ordeal, the children said the last time they were given food was on Sunday and for the last few days they are being fed on plain chapattis.  
Information from the security organs in the city indicates that, Sabir has been a serial conman who has been previously arrested in Maracha and Nebbi hence raising concerns and suspected bribery to purchase his freedom. Sabir, in 2022, was ferrying children from the region to Kampala and other places on claims that he is taking them to school but eventually the children return without joining school. According to Ajobe Rashid a special hire driver in Arua city, last year Sabir hired him to transport children from Maracha says he is demanding Sabir for not paying him for work he did last year. “He hired me and told me we is should go and pick people from Maracha. From there I was arrested and put in for 14 days. Out of our business he was to pay me two hundred thousand shillings per day and the money he was to pay me was 2.8 million. He ran away and I remained in prison until I was bailed at seven hundred thousand shillings,” Ajobe narrated. Ezama Ham Muzamil the deputy Resident district commissioner Arua, is also lost twenty million shillings to Sabir, in a land deal. “First of all, this man called Sabir conned us 12 million. This guy came and said he had a vast land and he wanted to sell because he had some issues. My brother picked 12 million and went and bought air. We registered a case, this guy went up to prison they gave him bail and he disappeared up to date. I don’t have hope to recover this money but I have hope that we are going to prosecute him,” Ezama revealed.

Marlon Avutia the mayor Ayivu division questions the behavior of security operatives especially on how Sabir was released after previous arrest.
“The question of how he has been coming out, whether through the police, whether through the court is a pertinent question if not addressed then we shall be wasting our time as elected leaders.” According to Marlon, they have information that the same man has been sleeping with peoples daughters under his custody which he says if proven by examinations will mean other charges against him. “It therefore beats my personal understanding when we are hearing that this man had a case in Maracha, he is still walking free and a woman called from Bombo saying he conned people in Bombo. It is like after collecting all these monies, they use part of this money to bribe agencies of security so that they don’t end up in the courts of law” Marlon asserted
Speaking to the media about his previous experiences with Sabir, Muzaidi Khemis the mayor Arua central says, he has been receiving information about this man having been released from prison and he kept wondering on how this happen given the nature of the crime for which he was arrested. “Today I have confirmed. He was from Leffori, Adjumai, moyo, he has traversed the whole of this place. And the other time when they tried to intercept him in maracha, as the mayor I tried to do everything possible to see to it that information is given. So how he was bailed and how the vehicle he was using also got to be removed from the police that question will now not be answered by us” he said.  

Alice Akello the resident city commissioner Arua warns parents against being careless with their children saying her office will begin arresting parents who give their children to strangers. “Parents are lazy they don’t want to work. So when somebody comes and says we are taking your children we are going to pay fees, you just surrender your children. This is very unfortunate. A child should be so dear to somebody, you can’t give your child to somebody just like that.”
Akello says, as authorities in the city they will follow the case against and she urges all people who have complaints against Sabir to report to the police and be able to follow their cases.