I simply slapped MP Otto in self-defence, says MP Akol

Kilak North MP, Anthony Akol says he was forced to slap his Aruu County counterpart, Odonga Otto in self-defence.

Describing himself as “heavyweight”, Mr Akol on Thursday told journalists that he was provoked by Mr Otto, who after expressing his grievances, started hurling insults at him.

“Even after explaining, he went ahead and started abusing me instead. He even kicked my knee. I had nothing else to do but to return a slap as a defence. Not evening boxing him. I'm heavy weight and if I had boxed him, he would be down. When he kicked my left knee, I had to just defend myself. He picked a chair and wanted to hit me before members (MPs) came and stopped him. That was it. It was no big deal. I don't think it was a serious issue. If he goes to court, I will have to defend myself,” Mr Akol told NTV.

The two lawmakers were engaged in altercation at Parliament before it deteriorated into a physical fight over claims that Mr Otto was telling Akol’s voters to eject him from the House for selling their land in Amuru to government.
The two legislators charged at each other as Mr Akol was escorting a group of his electorates that had just visited him at Parliament.
Eye witnesses say Mr Akol accosted Mr Otto around the pigeonhole area and asked him why he was decampaigning him.

Describing the altercation as an embarrassment to is children, constituents and country, Mr Otto said he never fought back.
Mr Otto said it was only wise and safer for him to walk away after getting ‘punched’.
“I know the weak parts of my body to protect. I'm an Italian trainee martial artiste and this helped me to contend the excesses of Akol. But if you see Honourable Akol is massive. These are the people who live near the park; they eat game meat like elephants and antelopes. If I had allowed him to land on my head, I would probably be having a concussion. So I had to mitigate the force of that punch. That was very unfortunate. It was an embarrassment to Acholi, the country and to my children. I did not fight back because it was unwise and by anyone's standard he is a massive giant. I just walked away,” Mr Otto said after being discharged from Nakasero hospital where he was rushed following the fight.

Mr Okin PP Ojara, the Acholi Parliamentary Group Chairperson, said it was very unfortunate for the MPs to have clashed physically.
He said they will sit down and try to resolve the matter between the two lawmakers and ensure that such an incident never happens again.

“We will understand the cause of that conflict before we see how to address it because we have our channels as members of Acholi Parliamentary group on how to address grievances among ourselves. We have been saying, time and again, that we should not confront each other or go to each other’s constituency during campaigns or talk ill against one another because we are one and we were sent to Parliament by the Acholi people to deliberate on matters that concern them. We will look into this matter and as the chairman, I will seek to understand what happened from both honourable Akol and honourable Otto and see how we can harmonise them,” he said.