Arua police arrest man captured on video flogging elderly woman

Police in Arua city have arrested a 51-year-old man who was captured on video flogging an elderly woman at Manibe Trading Center along Arua-Koboko road.

Twalibu Avutia, a resident of Baruku cell, Baza ward, Arua Central Division was on Wednesday captured on a phone camera whipping Teresa Angucia, 65, a resident of Olivu A cell, Oreku ward, Ayivu Division Arua city whom she accused of stealing his property that he left by the roadside.

In the video recording that has since gone viral and attracted public condemnation from several social media users, Avutia is seen ruthlessly flogging the elderly woman endlessly as a group of youths kept on cheering him. 

In the 1.24-minute video footage, the suspect is also seen stepping on the head of the victim who was heard crying and pleading her innocence and asking Avutia to stop assaulting her.

Josephine Angucia, police spokesperson for West Nile region explains that the incident happened at about 1:40 pm at a bus stop stage. According to Angucia, the matter was reported to police by the victim which compelled police to open a case of assault. She further notes that the suspect is currently detained at Manibe police station.

Preliminary police investigations indicate that the suspect who was waiting to travel to Maracha district left his luggage containing foodstuff and other items at the bus stage under the watch of boda boda riders at the stage as rushed back home to fetch his colleagues with whom they were planning to travel with to Maracha.

However, the victim who was expecting some foodstuff from Nebbi district rushed to the same bus stop to pick the same package after she got information from one of her neighbours that the foodstuff had already been offloaded. 

Coincidentally, the elderly woman rushed to the same bus stage and found an unattended package that she checked and found containing almost the same food items that she was expecting. She thereafter took the bag home wrongly thinking it was hers.

Upon returning to pick up the remaining items from the bus stage, the elderly woman was grabbed by the suspect after boda boda riders identified her as the woman who took the first items prompting Avutia to start whipping the woman.

The latest incident comes in the wake of widespread lawlessness in Arua city in which over 10 suspected criminals have been lynched by mob in different parts of the city over the past two weeks.