HOIMA: Seven people, including the director of Winners Secondary School, have been arrested over inciting violence and illegal assembly.
The arrested are five students, an unidentified teacher, and the director, Geoffrey Mwine, all from the same school.
Their arrest follows a fracas that ensued at Booma grounds when players and the staff of Winners secondary school turned rowdy, disputing the secondary school games organizers’ decision to disqualify them from the ongoing Hoima City Uganda secondary school sports association (USSSA) football games for boys.
Police officers in Hoima City were forced to fire tear gas to disperse players and spectators from the playground, but the situation escalated to more chaos, which prompted the arrests.
Teargas locked Hoima City after players from Winners Secondary School stormed Booma Playground and failed to quit protesting their disqualification from the quarterfinals.
According to Geoffrey Mwine, the director, Winners SS on Monday qualified for the quarterfinals in the ongoing Hoima City USSSA football tournament for boys after eliminating St. Andrea Kaahwa SS with one goal to nil.
However, St. Andrea Kaahwa petitioned the organizing committee on the grounds that Winners SS was not supposed to play after discovering that it is not licensed with the Ministry of Education and Sports, which is contrary to the new rules.
The committee ruled in favor of Winners SS, and it was fixed to play with St. Peters SS at 1 oclock, but St. Andrea went ahead with an appeal, which forced the committee to suspend the match and fix Mandela SS against Kitara SS.
Mwine explained that at 1 oclock, Winners SS stormed the playground protesting the decision and demanding more explanations, which paralyzed everything.
Police led by Pemerson, the officer in charge of operations at Hoima central police station, were forced to fire tear gas to disperse players and fans after the situation got rowdy.
The operations officer ordered the organizers to suspend all games to calm down the situation.
Francis Bagonza, the organizing secretary, has explained that they allowed Winners to play in the tournament without knowing that it was not licensed.
He has therefore said that they have suspended all matches until further notice.
Meanwhile, St. James and St. Mark have qualified for the semi-finals after eliminating Premier SS and Duhaga SS, respectively, on penalties.
The Albertine Region Police ASP Julius Allan Hakiza revealed that they have preferred charges of inciting violence after the students allegedly mobilized for sticks and stones to beat their fellow students from other schools.
Hakiiza revealed one of the students had obtained a jerrycan of petrol with the intention of burning barracks for Hoima’s central police station.
The News Editor ,Reporter at Kagadi Kibaale community Radio
