During a virtual press conference on Thursday, Bishop Isaiah Mbuga of Christ’s Heart Ministries International addressed matters surrounding the death of their beloved church member and co-minister Emmanuel Tegu, aged 24.
The third-year veterinary student of Makerere University was violently beaten on the 27 June, 2020, and sustained life threatening injuries which he eventually succumbed to on the 3 July, 2020 at Mulago Hospital, Kiruddu.
Skeptical about the recent statement issued by Uganda Police, Bishop Isaiah Mbuga revealed that Christ’s Heart Ministries International has accepted the contribution of Uganda Law Society and Christian Lawyers Fraternity, “to take up this case with its own independent investigations team to establish the facts in the courts of law,” he said.
Here’s Bishop Isaiah Mbuga’s Full Statement
This is the position of Christ’s Heart Church regarding the death of our fellow member, co-minister and someone we looked at as an upcoming leader.
First and foremost, we are greatly saddened.
We have failed to come to terms with Emmanuel Tegu’s death and with the way he died. We have been able to establish a number of facts contrary to what the police is releasing within the media.
We want to call upon the Uganda Police Force to be fair and true in this case. Be true to the issue of the time the crime was committed. It was not 10 o’clock, it was 7 o’clock.
Secondly, we want to know from the officers who were positioned at the main hall why they fired two bullets.
Thirdly, we demand to know why an officer took his phone. This officer should be placed on the crime scene. All these things you are trying to do, and say, getting information from the PRO, we will not object, but it better be true information, because this is a person who had a future. This is a person who we loved. This is a person who had a family which cared about him.
You cannot come from the village to the city in-order to study, and they take you back as a dead body: killed because they’ve mistaken you for a thief.
Every day that we read and watch what is coming in from the police, we feel very saddened and our intelligence greatly insulted. For this matter, we have accepted the contribution of Uganda Law Society and Christian Lawyers Fraternity, to take up this case with its own independent investigations’ team to establish the facts in the courts of law.
No one should die, or be caught and killed in that manner. This is not acceptable. We speak against the torture of suspects. We also call upon those who are concerned to disarm the Local Defence Unit (LDU) because there are more people who have been killed by people trying to enforce curfew than with the thing called Corona which we are trying to keep them from.
In the same breath, I want to call upon the quick opening of churches because the church is a major contributor to development in this nation. They are the light of the world. They are the salt of the earth.
We know God has His own ways of justice. I want to offer free advice to whoever participated in that kind of activity that if you do not repent, you will live to bury your own children the way you have met Tegu’s mother burying him.
We want to tell Police, and other forces at large that journalists are contributors to development and also Church is a contributor to development.
I want to pray that no other person in this nation dies at the hands of the Police or LDU. I pray that there will be no other mother that bury’s her son or her daughter because of mistaken identity.
Finally, I also want to call upon the police not to use the excuse of bipolar [disorder], because not every bipolar person will end up dying like that. If you are saying Tegu had the underlying condition and that is why you killed him – then that means every family where there are bipolar people, they are likely to be killed in the same manner. We don’t want people who are struggling with mental issues to feel unsafe in their county.
We already know that confining people in spaces for a protracted period of time causes mental stress. It has been out there. We do not know why among the SOPs it was not incorporated so that those pushing for law and order should know that their are people who are stressed being confirned.
We want to call up Uganda police to [retract the statements] which it has already offered which are not due. And we want to call upon them to apologize for such actions.
I want to say that right now, this case is generating very high interest this world over. And I want to assure you, we will soon publish, showing you the situation, using all kinds of technology available to us, and for sure, Emmanuel Tegu will get the justice that he deserves.
May Emmanuel Tegu’s soul rest in eternal peace.
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