EASTERN PROVINCE

NGOMA — Police in Ngoma are holding a man who has allegedly been conning people of their money by promising to secure them passports and visas.

Alex Habarugira, a resident of Rwikubo Rurenge sector, Ngoma district, is alleged to have fleeced close to Frw200, 000 from different people promising to take them abroad to learn modern ways of milking cows and later get them jobs.

Police acting on a tip from some people, who had earlier given him money, arrested him last Sunday, in Rurenge sector, where he had reportedly gone to collect more money from other potential victims.

Habarugira admitted the crime, saying it was out of desperate quest for survival. "I was only using the trick of getting them passports and visas, to take them abroad, where I would get them jobs just to extract money from them," he said.

It is also said that Habarugira told his victims that he had so far taken about eight people abroad but he still needed more.

"It was out of frustration after being robbed of my money in Kigali that I got after selling my coffee. I was totally left with nothing other than looking for other ways of survival. I believed they would not doubt me, since they were my fellow residents." Habarugira said.

"But I advise people who hold such habits like mine, not to use them because I have realised that it is not the best way to look for survival."

It is believed that Habarugira obtained a passport application form from the immigrations office in Kigali, which he photocopied and gave to his victims in the name of passports.

Muvunyi Leonard, who was fleeced of Frw20, 000, says Habarugira had promised to take him abroad and get him a job of milking cows since he already knew how to milk.

"I had even borrowed that money from my fellow friends who had also fallen victim because they (friends) did not want to leave me behind," Muvunyi says.

Emmanuel Niyomukiza, another victim, who never disclosed how much money he lost, says he was asked to find Habarugira in Kigali, where he would be shown where the ‘visa processing agency’ operates.

He says when he reached in Kigali he called Habarugira on phone who appeared some few minutes later.

"When I asked him where their offices were, he kept on taking me through different buildings around town," Niyomukiza says.

Niyomukiza further claims that after sometime, as they moved from one building to another, Habarugira showed him a girl inside a building who was working on a computer, that it was where they operate from, but he did not allow him get closer to the girl.

"He then instructed me to go and take express passport photos which I did and brought them to him with some amount of money," Niyomukiza narrates.

"I was supposed to give him some more money since what I gave him was a half of what we had agreed on."

Meanwhile, it also emerged that Habarugira, last year enabled the escape of one man to Uganda, who was wanted by the Gacaca court for crimes committed during the 1994 Genocide.

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