Kaabong NUP chairman shot dead in mistaken identity, Police say

The Kaabong District National Unity Platform (NUP) chairman, Ambrose Lochoto, 30, is saidto have been shot dead by security forces who were tracking suspected cattle rustlers in Kakamar sub-county, Kaabong Town Council late on Sunday night.
 
The Karamoja Region Police Spokesperson, Mr Michael Longole, however, says he was mistakenly shot dead by joint security forces who were responding to gunshots by suspected cattle rustlers in Kakamar sub-county.

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NUP accuses UPDF of Karamoja killings
 
“Our security forces responded to gunshots in Kakamar sub-county from suspected cattle rustlers, we laid ambushes in known crossing areas for the raiders, but unfortunately, Lochoto walked into the ambush and that how he got shot,” Mr Longole told Monitor in a telephone interview on March 11.
 
He said they were receiving social media reports that the deceased was one of the leaders of an Opposition party but the incident had nothing to do with politics, adding: “In a situation of an ambush and the time of the shooting, any one would be suspected of being a wrong person.”
 
According to Mr Longole, the deceased was footing and wondered why he dared walk along such a deserted path in the night, even when he had heard gunshots in the area.
 
Until his death, Mr Lochoto was a carpenter in Kaabong Town Council, but in 2021, he unsuccessfully contested for the Kaabong Town Council LC3 seat on the NUP ticket.

READ: UPDF causing silent genocide in Karamoja - Kabuleta
 
Since that defeat, he returned to his masonry work and during the weekends, he was an ardent fan of English Premiership side, Arsenal, which he often cheered when he got hours off his busy work schedule.
 
Some local leaders, however, dispute the official police narrative that he was a victim of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

 
District councilor for Kaabong Town Council, Mr Gabriel Loiki Paak, said Lochoto left his home on Saturday to watch Arsenal take on Brentford in an English premiership fixture, which went on late into the night. 
 
“After the match, Lochoto, who was accompanied by a young man, walked through Roblyn bus terminal where he had intervened in a fight between two ladies. 
 
“But in the process, a police patrol car that had policemen and UPDF officers arrived at the scene, sending the two ladies to flee to a nearby house,” Mr Loiki said.
 
He added: "As the ladies fled, Lochoto ran and took cover under one of the buses, but was unfortunately pulled out, bundled onto a police pickup truck, taken to the banks of River Kaabong and shot dead.”
 
According to Mr Loiki, on Monday morning (today), they found his body riddled with “several bullet wounds”, while “so many cartridges were all over the scene”.
 
Police Publicist Longole, however, dismisses these claims as a “fabrication”, saying the shooting was “purely a case of mistaken identity”.
 
He added that they had held a meeting with Lochoto’s family, and handed over the body after an autopsy was carried out at Kaabong Hospital.
 
NUP leader, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) took to Facebook, where he posted: “. . . While NUP supporters and mobilisers go through incredible problems all over the country it is worse in Northern Uganda where RDCs, DISOs, GISOs, DPCs etc. work overtime to instill fear in the entire population.”
 
He added: “Since the 2021 election, several comrades have been killed in West Nile, Lango, Acholi and Karamoja. We strongly condemn this cowardly action, and demand for justice for comrade Lochoto.”
 
NUP Secretary General, Mr David Lewis Rubongoya, posted on the same platform: “We have lost such a solid comrade who has always put on his people power attire everywhere. Very sad he has been murdered in cold blood.”