A policewoman in Jinja has accused her male colleague of stealing two rolls of barbed wire worth Shs240,000 she had bought to fence her plot of land in Wanyange in Jinja City.

Police Constable (PC) Hawa Namuwaya, 59, accuses PC Fred Igan of theft, and her superiors of frustrating her efforts to recover the said item or have the suspect brought to book.

According to Ms Namuwaya, she bought two rolls of barbed wire from a scrap yard in Wanyange around 2016.

“At the time I bought the barbed wire, I was staying in Wanyange in some old buildings with fellow officers and asked that I use one of the rooms which were empty to keep my barbed wire. I told the incoming officer-in-charge (OC) of the station, ASP Jaffar Satte, that I didn’t want to keep the barbed wire on the premises without his knowledge and he said it was okay,” Ms Namuwaya said on Wednesday.

She added: “The last time I spoke to Mr Igan, he told me that the barbed wire was with the defence secretary of Wanyange Lake Village, Mr Ayasi Muwaya, and that he was going to call him and get back to me, but hasn’t done so to date and doesn’t pick my calls.”

Ms Namuwaya claims that she has evidence that Igan rode it on the police bicycle and took it to the area defence secretary.

Ms Namuwaya, who will leave Mpumudde Police Station in Jinja City for her new duty station in Wakiso District on Tuesday next week, says that she has exhausted all avenues to recover her barbed wire after Mr Igan reportedly stopped picking up her calls two months ago.

Mr Igan, who has since been transferred from Jinja Central Police Station to Butaleja District, advised Ms Namuwaya to ask ASP Satte about the whereabouts of her barbed wire.

“I can’t steal barbed wire. I can instead give her (Namuwaya) 100 rolls of barbed wire. Please contact ASP Satte,” he said in a brief telephone interview with the reporters.

However, efforts to reach out to Mr Satte were futile as his phone was out of reach by the time of filing this story.

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