MP Odonga Otto arrested over illegal possession of a gun, assault

Aruu North Member of Parliament, Mr Samuel Odonga Otto

GULU- Aruu North Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Odonga Otto has been arrested and detained on a range of criminal offences including assault of a journalist in 2019 and claiming that he had been poisoned while in police custody.

Mr Otto was transported to Kampala City and detained at the Special Investigations Division (SID) in Kireka where his cases will be processed.

The spokesman of Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) Mr Charles Twiine said that Mr Otto faces other offences like illegal possession of a firearm, destruction of property and offensive communication that are being investigated.

“He is going to be detained at SID headquarters. He will be interviewed on Wednesday,” Mr Twiine said on Tuesday.

It is alleged that Mr Otto assaulted a journalist while at Pece Stadium in Gulu city in 2019. The case, according to police has been on shelves for a long time.

The police also allege that he used a gun that he holds illegally to attack a driver before he damaged his vehicle.

In another case, it is alleged he was involved in electoral violence in January this year and when he was arrested and detained, he claimed to have been poisoned while in detention.

Police say that it wasn’t true and are now investigating him for offensive communication.

Mr Twiine said that MP Otto has been holding a firearm that isn’t registered in any of the security systems that amounts to illegal possession of a firearm.

A team of detectives led by Francis Olugu, the deputy director of the Criminal Investigations Directorate headquarters was sent from Kampala City to Gulu City to arrest him.

It is rare for a senior police officer in that position to lead an operation to arrest an MP in the countryside.

Often, MPs are summoned through the Speaker of Parliament and thereafter arrested upon appearance and taken to courts of law.

The team cornered him at Bomah Hotel in Gulu City. MP Otto’s brother, Mr Tadeo Oloya Otto was also arrested on allegations of obstructing police officers from arresting the MP.

The Deputy Director Criminal investigation department Francis Olugu told the MP that the case of assaulting a driver and malicious damage of property, against him had been sanctioned and he would be taken to court in Pader District.

However, the police drove him to Kampala City. Mr Otto  who was defeated in the parliamentary election by Dr Christopher Komakech, a relative of the Deputy Inspector General of Police Major General Paul Lokech, said cases against him are politically motivated.