Turkey-based YouTuber and Social Media blogger Fred Lumbuye alias Chemical Ali has been arrested, the Daily Express has confirmed.
Lumbuye, a strong critic of the Ugandan government and President Yoweri Museveni was arrested in Turkey where he has been hailing since seeking asylum for fear of his life.
Security sources confirmed his arrest and revealed that a team of operatives attached to Uganda’s External Security Organisation, working with the Turkish security, tracked and arrested Lumbuye from his hideout in Turkey.
“He has been tracked for some time, and he was finally arrested. Lumbuye had several players behind him. It is time for truth-telling and for him to reveal whoever was involved in feeding him with falsehoods to cause acrimony,” a security source revealed.
By presstime, the foreign affairs state minister in charge of International Affairs, Henry Okello Oryem, said he was addressing a press conference. But Oryem had earlier said Lumbuye should be arrested for causing acrimony in Uganda through his social media posts.
His arrest comes just weeks since President Yoweri Museveni on July 8 directed security services to track down people who misuse social media by spreading false information.
The President said there was a need to crack down on the people who are misemploying social media, including the Ugandans living abroad. He noted that many of them are now using it to spread baseless and tasteless news with total abandon.
“Another idiotic problem that we need to solve is the social media. Social media apparently has been saying that Museveni is dead. So, the security service needs also to solve that problem. I need to check with them to locate quickly the one who tells such a story because you waste people’s time; they should go for you,” Museveni said
The news of Lumbuye’s arrest has already sparked a social media outburst with many of his co-conspirators claiming he has been kidnapped.
A fundraising drive has since been set up to make sure Lumbuye gets the best lawyers when he is arraigned in court.
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