By eastafrican gazette
The Police in Aswa West River Region police are investigating the intentions of the driver who burnt his vehicle in public.
Suudi Balidawa, a driver and mechanic from Elegu, Amuru district allegedly took his Toyota Wish, with license plate UBE 852E, to a nearby open field.
Once there, he surprisingly proceeded to pour petrol inside the vehicle before setting it on fire.
This happened around at 5:00pm at Lorikwo East village in Elegu, on May 21.
The incident happened not far from the police station.
It is alleged that the Balidawa’s actions were motivated by what he perceived as discriminatory treatment from a police officer due to his Muslim faith.
He claims that everything started on May 7, 2024 when he unintentionally hit an elderly woman from Kanyanya in Kampala, while on his way to Gulu city.
He says although he successfully took the old woman to Mulago National Referral Hospital for medical care, he was unable did not report the incident to the police as he was in the process of taking his daughter to St Mary’s Hospital Lacor for her own treatment.
Balidawa mentioned that he later spoke with the injured woman’s son and agreed to revisit the hospital at a later time to discuss further arrangements regarding medical expenses.
According to Balidawa, he later received a phone call from a police officer at Kanyanya police station, who instructed him to report the incident to the nearest police station.
He followed the advice and reported to Elegu police station on May 9, where he was charged with a road traffic accident offense under case No: TAR27A/2024 and was subsequently released on bond.
However, he was instructed to report to Kanyanya police station the next day. Here, he claims he was treated disrespectfully by the officer in charge at Kanyanya police station and was detained despite having been granted a police bond from Elegu police station earlier.
He says even after his release, the officer stationed at Elegu police station issued a directive prohibiting him from driving the vehicle beyond Elegu town council, despite having already completed the vehicle inspection process and paid for it.
Out of frustration and anger, this compelled him to set the vehicle on fire.
Balidawa mentioned that he had previously reached an agreement with the injured woman’s family to provide Uganda shs3,000,000 for medical expenses within a period of 25 days.
He has already paid an initial payment of Uganda shs1,000,000/=.
“I proceeded to board the vehicle. By 6am the next day, I had already arrived in Kampala. I made my way to the police station even before 7 o’clock in the morning. I contacted the complainant, Mr. Eddie, to inform him of my presence at the station.I took the initiative to go there myself,” he narrated.
Balidawa when the police officer arrived in her car, he approached her and introduced himself as the individual responsible for the accident, but her response, he says was rather surprising.
“You are the one?” to which he confirmed.
“I wonder if all Muslims are like you people. If all Muslims are like you guy, Muslims are really bad people. You’re bad-hearted. I asked, how mummy? What have I done? I took the victim to hospital and handed him over to the relative,” he recounted.
David Mudong, Aswa region policing area spokesperson said the police have opened an investigation into Balidawa’s action to ascertain the motives.
He stressed that they want to understand why he burnt down his vehicle yet he already had a traffic offense in Kanyanya.
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