The leader of Boda-Boda 2010 Abdullah Kitata has submitted to the jurisdiction of the General Court Martial by accepting to take plea on the charges unlawfully being in possession of firearms.
Kitata and 11 others have pleaded not guilty to 6 counts including unlawful possession of firearms, live ammunitions, military head gears and uniforms.
Kitata and his group had on their 1st appearance in court on the 13th/February 2018 refused to plead to the charges on grounds that they are not Military personnel to be charged in a military court.
However following an earlier warning by the court’s chairman Lt. Gen. Gutti about a serious decision he may be forced to take regarding the suspect’s behaviour of contempt of court, their lawyer Shaban Sanywa has today informed court that his clients are much more willing to enter plea and be tried in this court.
Sanywa even asked court to be availed with prosecution’s intended evidence and exhibits so that he can ably prepare his client’s would be defense.
Meanwhile, the two accused persons Swawali Ngobi and Ibrahim Sekajja who had not been produced to court by prison authorities on the 13th of February 2018 were also been brought today for formal charging.
The duo; Ngobi and Sekajja together with Abdallah Kitata face five separate charges of being in unlawful possession of an SMG gun, 3 pistols and 50 rounds of live ammunitions.
Prosecution led by Maj. Raphael Mugisha states that the above items were found on the trio on the 18th/January 2018 while in a Motor vehicle at Vine Hotel in Wakaliga within Kampala city.
The rest of the 11 accused, Kitata, Ngobi and Sekajja face charges of being in unlawful possession of military head gears and uniforms all which prosecution says are ordinarily a monopoly of defence forces.
Court has however transferred Kitata from Luzira prison and remanded him to Makindye military police barracks yet his co-accused have been remanded back to Luzira prison until the 19th February 2018.
Kitata and co-accused we’re first charged before the military Disciplinary Unit at CMI Headquarters in Mbuya before being committed to the General Court Martial which has jurisdiction to try capital offenses which are punished by death and life sentences respectively.
