There was moment of drama in Lira town, Uganda, on Wednesday, March 21, when a rogue driver locked up two traffic police officers inside a taxi.
The Evening Post gathered the two officers were trailing the taxi driver for disobeying traffic rules including wrong parking. “He had parked the vehicle wrongly and when the officers requested him to move it he refused to obey,” Lira District Police Commander Joel Tubanone said.
The officers reportedly impounded the vehicle near White House Hotel in Lira town. But when they entered the taxi and ordered the driver to accompany them to police station, the driver instead got out of the car, locked them inside and walked away with the key. "The driver locked our officers in the vehicle before handing over the key to another person," Police Commander Tubanone claimed.
The officers' efforts to come out of the vehicle proved futile even as curious crowd started milling around the car to witness what was going on. They remained stuck inside the taxi for eight hours until the vehicle's owner arrived. The owner then drove them to central police station.
When the officers finally came out of the car feeling embarrassed and exhausted, they entered a nearby hotel where they were locked up again for their own safety. Meanwhile, the crowd that gathered around the vehicle when it was impounded had followed it to the central police station in Lira.
Everyone wanted to see the driver of the car as rumours went round that the taxi was bewitched. The police at some point had to use teargas to disperse the crowd.
