Seven months since Marvin Mutungi, Martin Atukwase and Derrick Waghooli were put behind bars on charges of murdering a one David Ojok outside Nkrumah Hall, the beleaguered trio has been finally committed to the High Court to stand trial. This is because Magistrates’ Courts have no jurisdiction to try murder cases.
The three Makerere University students’ woes stem from the 12th April incident at Nkrumah when a mob of students descended onto and mercilessly clobbered to death the late Ojok whom they had suspected of being a thief. The indictment implicates them and others still on the run as having participated in this murder.
At the time of their arrest, Mutungi and Atukwase were student leaders at Nkrumah, being Chairman and Information Minister, respectively. Waghooli was a student attached to the same hall who hours after Ojok’s murder took to social media to ‘celebrate the feat’.
Appearing last week before Her Worship Esther Nahirya, the presiding Magistrate at Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court, the trio were committed to the High Court to stand trial as suspects following the State’s completion of investigations into the circumstances under which Ojok was murdered.
“Your worship, the investigations are complete and committal papers have been prepared with a purpose of sending the accused persons to High Court for trial. We therefore pray that the trio be committed to High Court to face trial,” stated the State prosecutor Esther Nalungi.
This latest development comes after Court had earlier denied the suspects bail which they sought to go and concentrate on their studies. The trio sat their last end of semester examinations from Luzira Prison.
In a related development, some students at Nkrumah hall expressed discontent at the lack of a substantive Chairman following Mutungi’s seven-month absence but their attempts to get a new leader were frustrated by a letter purportedly authored by Mutungi appointing the interior minister to act in his stead. Sources, however, question the authenticity of this letter.
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