A retired general in President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s army and a former spy have thrown hints onto what needs to be done to unravel the facts behind the attempted assassination of House of Prayer Ministries International (HPMI) lead pastor Aloysius Bugingo.
On January 02, Bugingo survived an attempted assassination but his driver and church elder Richard Muhumuza did not survive. Scores of bullets lodged in his body, Muhumuza succumbed to injuries. He was laid to rest in Sembabule on January 05.
At least seven bullets were found in Muhumuza’s body. It has also emerged that the same pistol used in shooting Muhumuza was the same one use to kill blogger Isma Olaxess.
There have been questions on how the shooting happened, how an injured Bugingo managed to drive Muhumuza in a car who window was riddled with bullets. There are also questions on who Bugingo is – a pastor and a state agent? Questions also abound on Muhumuza who was a church elder at HPMI, the pastor’s driver and bodyguard, as well as an officer of the Special Forces Command (SFC).
Former spy, now political and security commentator Charles Rwomushana argues that the debate should be on ‘heavier questions.’
“We should rather be debating the heavier questions. Why was Bugingo targeted? The professionalism of SFC. Why deploy a loner soldier to guard such a VIP in such a complicated terrain?” he wrote.
“Were the gunners interested in the undercover SFC officer and Bugingo was merely a victim?”
But Gen David Sejusa, a former coordinator of intelligence services, feels that instead of people asking why an SFC officer should be guarding a pastor, people should be asking who Bugingo is. In his view, while the law allows one to be a pastor and an intelligence officer or even a commander, unravelling who Bugingo is would help break the code of why he had an SFC guard – and perhaps why he was targeted.
“… there is nothing irregular depending on who Bugingo was. We have many Reverends and Imams who are also serving UPDF officers. The rest, I don’t know… if we answer the question of ‘who is Bugingo,’ then can easily deduce why he was or wasn’t targeted! Secondly,if we answered who Bugingo is, we may answer [the] second query of the professionalism of SFC; deploying a ‘lone Soldier’, was it One or actually two Soldiers?” said Sejusa.
It should be remembered that while Bugingo is a known supporter of first son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s MK Project, Sejusa got in trouble about a decade ago for ‘prophesying’ the Muhoozi Project. Sejusa and other top generals have sworn they can only salute Muhoozi over their dead bodies. (See Details Here and There).
Meanwhile, Bobi Wine, who the pastor is known to criticize vehemently, has warned Bugingo following the pastor’s attempted assassination. (See Details Here).
