Sub county chairperson, District Councilor held over GISO’s murder

The security forces in Karamoja are holding the LC3 chairperson for the Lokopo sub-county and a district councilor on accusations of masterminding the killing of Gombolola Intelligent Officer of the same sub-county.

John Bosco Lopuli, the GISO Lokopo sub-county was gunned down by what were then suspected to be cattle rustlers in June at Nakichelet village, Akalale parish.

The joint security forces comprising UPDF and Police launched a hunt for the suspected warriors and two sub-county officials were netted early this month in connection to the murder.

Brig Joseph Balikudembe, the UPDF 3rd division commander said the suspects Identified as Elijah Lobucel, the sub county chairperson and Mario Logit, the district councilor are accused of masterminding the killing of the GISO in Lokopo sub-county.

Balikudembe said the two suspects were arrested following the leads from their intelligence and also canine dogs which first led the security team to their homes on the first day of the operations.

He said the victims are already in custody and security is still hunting for the suspect who pulled the trigger of the gun to shoot the deceased.

Balikudembe also revealed that several guns were retrieved from the local leaders at sub-county, District, LC II and LC1 levels across the region.

According to Balikudembe, several leaders are already in custody, which shows that a number of leaders in Karamoja are involved in criminality.

‘’It’s surprising that even some of the leaders we had trusted to work with are also part of the problem and this has opened our eyes to start targeting them as well,’’ Balikudembe said.

However, Dauda Hiriga, the Kidepo regional police commander noted that the cases of criminality are dropping in the region, following the energized operations against the wrong elements.

Hiriga says they have also received surveillance cameras and canine dogs which are going to the forces to track and arrest criminals.