The gang was taking up to Shs 8 million per killing.
The Uganda Police Force has dismantled a suspected contract-killing gang in Lira following an intelligence-led operation that exposed a deadly murder-for-hire plot funded with millions of shillings.
The breakthrough, detailed in the 2025 Police Crime Report, is part of wider targeted operations against organized criminal syndicates involved in robbery, murder, financial crime, cyber offences, human trafficking and other transnational and street crimes. Police said the success of these operations has been driven by close collaboration with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA), Internal Security Organisation (ISO), the UPDF, the Judiciary and international partners. According to the report, on 8 August 2025, Lira resident Okwir Bonny received a call from telephone number 0776781046, from a caller posing as a UPDF officer who claimed he had been hired by one Omach Moris to kill him, but instead demanded Shs 7.5 million to abandon the mission. Bonny paid Shs 5.5 million and immediately reported the matter to Lira City West Police (SD Ref. 26/10/08/2025) as a case of conspiracy to commit a felony. Subsequent investigations led to the arrest of Ebosu Emmanuel on 12 August 2025, who reportedly confessed that Moris had hired three hitmen for Shs 6 million, with advances of Shs 200,000 each.
Searches recovered an AK-47 rifle with four rounds from vehicle UBS 695B, along with UPDF uniform items allegedly sourced in 2024 through Kampala–Lira contacts.
Both suspects were arraigned and remanded, while the hunt for another suspect, Awie Nyonyo, is ongoing.
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