Ugandan police have arrested a pastor and his wife for the alleged ritual murder of a 4-year-old girl named Trinity Nakisuyi Nabirye Zabeela.
Prophet Joseph Sserubiri and Felista Namaganda of Deliverance and Healing Ministries in Kakira Market Zone, Kakira Town Council, Jinja, were arrested on Sunday, December 5 and admitted to the killing of the child with the motive of establishing a powerful church.
According to the police, Nabirye went missing from her father, Mr Mulodi John’s home in the same zone on September 30, 2021.
A case of disappearance was registered at Kakira Central Police Station vide SD Ref. 49/01/10/2021.
Since then, the girl’s parents and the police have been going to various radio stations in Jinja and Iganga towns in efforts to have the child recovered but in vain.
The case was threatening to go cold until, at the residents’ insistence, police declared the couple, persons of interest in their investigation into the crime.
The Kira region police spokesman, James Mubi, who confirmed the development said they tracked the prophet’s mobile phone numbers, leading to the duo’s arrest.
“After thorough interrogations of the accused persons, they admitted to having murdered the child in the church with the motive of establishing a powerful deliverance church in Kakira. They are leading police to the place where they buried the corpse,” Mr Mubi stated.
The couple later led detectives to Wanyange Village on the shores of Lake Victoria where Nabirye’s skull was recovered.
The suspects also led detectives to a sugarcane plantation in Kakira where her decomposed body was found.
Pastor Serubiri and his wife rented a garage from John Mulodi’s parents and turned it into a church.