Police in Mbale have arrested eight young men over suspicion of extorting money from the beneficiaries of the Parish Development Model (PDM) scheme.
They were targeting the elderly or the educated who were having problems accessing their money via mobile banking applications.
The suspects are John Paulo Wazombe, Agrey Titus , Alfred Mwaka , Stephan Wanyakomu, Asuman Matanda, and Moses Mukhwana. All the suspects are residents of Mbale City’s Industrial Division Nauyo.
The suspects were paraded at Mbale RDC’s Office on Saturday.
According to Rex Echacali told journalists that he ordered the arrest of the suspects after obtaining intelligence information.
He said that they would ask for between fifty to two hundred thousand shillings from each beneficiary before helping them withdraw the money without physically getting to the banking halls or the Automated Teller Machines (ATMS).
It is suspected that two hundred people have fallen victim. Some of the victims reportedly handed their Personal Identification Numbers(PINS) to the suspects only to find that all their money had been withdrawn.
Rex Echacali alleges that the suspects were conniving with Stanbic bank officers and Mbale city technocrats to withdraw the money. He said he has ordered an investigation to trace and have those at large to be arrested. The suspects were filing statements at the Police by the time of filing this report.
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