Kampala – The Democratic Party (DP) has blamed police for the New Year’s Day stampede at Freedom City Mall that left atleast 10 people dead.
Addressing the party’s weekly press briefing in Kampala on Tuesday, Ismael Kirya the Uganda Young Democrats (UYD) president said security should stop pointing fingers at the event organisers since they didn’t accredit themselves to hold the event.
He said security ought to have been vigilant enough to ascertain if all the necessary measures were put in place to prevent such occurrences.
“We are calling upon security personnel not to blame the organisers because they clearly stipulated their plan to them when they were approving their event. People who approved that event should have been the first to be arrested and not the event organiser,” said Kirya
He noted that all this is because police officers are becoming unprofessional by paying more attention only to political events.
“If the event was for political leaders, the security would have been very vigilant but because it wasn’t political, they only concentrated on getting the fees these people give them after clearing them,” said Kirya
He called upon the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to caution his officers whom he said have begun to concentrate on money rather than professionalism.
“If we had terrorists in Uganda on New Year’s Eve, we were going to lose more people than we lost because of the negligence of these security officers. Government should take caution,” added Kirya
On Monday, police arrested the event organizer Abby Musinguzi alias Abitex over the stampede. According to Fred Enanga, the police spokesperson, Abitex was arrested to help in investigations after they found loopholes in the event’s organization.
Enanga said police established that the organizers put profits before the safety of revellers and concertgoers by using only one gate on the assumption that other non-ticketed persons would take advantage and gain entry. He added that they are also investigating circumstances under which young children between 10 – 17 years, gained entry into the venue.
