The Magistrates Court in Kitgum District has remanded two out of eight suspects who are accused of breaking into 21 shops within Kitgum Municipality.
The suspects who appeared before Kitgum Chief Magistrates Elizabeth Akullo on Monday were identified as Ronald Rubangakene aka the big, Richard Opala, Richard Okello, Sam Acire, and Robert Olony. They were charged with two counts of theft and shop breaking.
The prosecution told the court that the suspects broke into shops belonging to Geoffrey Kilama and Joyce Oyella at Ongom Louis road in Central Division on July 29 and stole goods worth 6.5 million and 5.5 million Shillings respectively.
The stolen items, according to the prosecution, included second-hand socks, a laptop, solar panels, second hand shorts, caps, curtains, rolls of fabrics, cartons of sewing threads, jumpers, pillows, and a 13-inch TV screen among others.
The suspects denied all the charges read against them. Akullo who entered a case of not guilty against the suspects however denied them bail until a period of one month. She later remanded all the suspects to Kitgum Prison until September 7 when they reaper in court for mention of their case.
Senior Resident State Attorney Hamza Muzime told the court that inquiries into the matter were still ongoing adding that other suspects and stolen goods were still being traced by the police.
Earlier, the Police had arrested eight suspects in connection to the shop break-in but granted bond to two of them; Robert Amone and Dixson Ongwech, all prominent businessmen within Kitgum Municipality. But two of the complainants in the case expressed dismay over the move by police to release two suspects found in possession of their stolen properties.
Kilama, one of the complainants said that the move is frustrating and demanded to understand why the suspects, believed to be key in the shop breakings and theft have been left out of the case.
The absence of the two had delayed the mention of the case from last week, as the magistrate tasked the police to produce them in court by today.
