Hope fades for missing child 

Authorities in Lira District are searching for a four-year-old girl, who has been missing since April 8.
 Elizabeth Akello was last spotted moving with a stranger around Timber Yard, Lira City East Division in Lira City.
While security maintains that there is no cause for alarm, concerned residents and the girl’s parents say hope of finding the girl alive is fading away.

Akello was living with her mother, Ms Dillish Adero, in Lira City.  
 Mr Lawrence Egole, the Lira Resident City Commissioner, said the police are doing everything possible to recover the child.

 “The disappearance of that child is everybody’s concern. Our interest as security is to recover the child whether dead or alive,” Mr Egole said on a local radio station in Lira City.  
Two weeks ago, police arrested three people to help with investigations.  One of the suspects held at Lira Central Police Station was reportedly seen moving with the child on the fateful day.  

Residents are wondering why the police are taking long to make a breakthrough yet the prime suspect is under custody.
 Mr Tom Okello, the child’s father, appealed to security to speed up investigations so that his daughter can reunite with his family.  
 “One police officer picked money from me purportedly to help speed up investigations but the reports we are receiving indicate that all the three suspects have refused to volunteer any information to police.  I beg the people of Lango to help me so that I can find my missing child,” Ms Adero said. 

 The chairperson of Timber Dealers’ Association, Mr Morris Acobi, accused investigators of being sluggish. “The child was abducted on Thursday (April 8); the person who abducted the child was arrested, he accepted that he took the child and some of us started questioning why the police wouldn’t now do everything it takes to recover the child,” Mr Acobi said. 

“We have also resolved to brief the Inspector General of Police and the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the occurrence because it is a tragedy to the whole nation,”  he added. 
Mr Levi Okodi Macpio, the first deputy prime minister of Lango Cultural Foundation, said: “The child’s disappearance does not give us peace, and good health. What has happened calls for unity among the security and the entire leadership of Lango.”