An inmate at Lugore Prisons in Palaro Sub-county, Gulu District has died after choking on marijuana stuffed in a pill which he had swallowed in attempt to hide the drugs from Prison authorities, police has said.
Rogers Ngabirano 24, a resident of Rukungiri who was serving a 14 years defilement jail term in Gulu was found dead at his cell on Sunday morning as prison wardens mounted head count for inmates.
“We responded to a case of sudden death registered on Sunday at Patiko Police post under reference number CRR017/2016 of an inmate who was found dead,’’ Aswa region police spokesman Jimmy Patrick Okema told Acholi Times on Wednesday.
‘‘We took his body to Gulu Regional Referral Hospital where a postmortem test was conducted on Monday,” Mr Okema said.
The late Ngabirano was sentenced from Masaka High Court in Masaka district and brought to serve his jail term at Lugore Prison in November last year
Police spokesperson, Jimmy Patrick Okema said the deceased is suspected to have smuggled the marijuana weighing 0.25gms from outside the prison facility when inmates were taken to work at the prison farm.
Mr Okema said a post postmortem results revealed that the marijuana got stuck in the deceased’s throat, choking him to death.
At the time of filing this story, the body of the deceased was still at the Gulu Referral Hospital mortuary.
Police say they are investigating the circumstances under which the deceased smuggled in the marijuana without the knowledge of the prison wardens.
Mr Frank Baine, Uganda Prisons Public relations officer said he could not comment on the matter since he did not have details about the incident.
In August last year, an inmate identified as Brian Opiyo, 19 a resident of Laroo Division in Gulu died from Gulu Central Prison after being tortured by fellow inmates.
