Thread by @IsaacSsemakadde

1/ “MAJ. GEN. PAUL LOKECH, I HAVE FORGIVEN YOU”

In a scathing tell-it-all obituary, Hon @odongaotto has once again proved his PATRIOTISM by unmasking his fellow tribesman as a COWARDLY TYRANT & SCAMMER basically. THEN SUDDENLY FORGIVEN HIM.

THREAD: An abridged version for #OUT

2/ “Friends, #UOT, Countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury #Lokech, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with #Lokech.”

— An adaptation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (spoken by @odongaotto)

3/ I’ve known Paul Lokech fairly well, for over 30 years. A brave, bold fighter — he once saved my life & also cared about Acholi land: “It shouldn't be taken forcefully. I will raise the matter in the Army High Command stay strong," he told us.

He also tried to get me a job.

4/ But Lokech’s true colours came out in mid 2020, when he openly fronted his biological son, Christopher Komakech to stand against me in the 2021 elections for MP Aruu County.  Chris was lucky to even land for campaigns in a helicopter as campaigns went on.

5/ Lokech deployed both @updf_ & @PoliceUg at will to aid his son's campaign. He transferred former DPC & OC station of Pader & replaced them with puppets Ramathan Tai & Enock Musiime respectively. He splashed out money in the name of @KagutaMuseveni & used it 4 his son as well.

6/ Two weeks to the polls, while I was leaving a rally in Awere, I was arrested by Lokech's blue-eyed boys, DPC Ramathan Tai & OC station Enock Musiime.

Ramathan Tai drew a pistol at me & said: "If you move, I will shoot. Why are you driving past Covid time?"

7/ We could hear music from Chris’ (my rival) campaign ground, so I asked: “Why not go & arrest them as well?”  

OC station Enock was honest: "It was an order from above".  That “above” was Paul Lokech. He knew I was going to win the race, so he’d opted for Plan B.

8/ Near Rackoko, running battles begun with youth protesting my arrest. Gunshots were fired & I took off to the nearest bush abandoning my car at the roadside like I was fleeing from Kony rebels. I’d become a fugitive in my own Country yet I was a candidate on a campaign trail.

9/I fled to Bungatira in Aswa & stayed indoors with a friend for 3 days. My phones were off as I knew I was being tracked. I wud send my friend to Gulu to gauge the mood. No info was flowing. Lokech & Co had partially achieved their objective by driving me off the campaign trail.

10/ Then I decided to shift to Kitgum after a week of hiding. Rumours were rife that I had been shot in the chest as I fled to S/Sudan. And so, voting for me would be voting for a dead man. And that EC had declared any vote for me as invalid. Illiterate voters believe any lie.

11/ At a secret meeting of my agents in Kitgum, my “homecoming“ was arranged. Amidst tears of joy I joined my people but at Odum, I was asked to remove my shirt & they see if there were bullet wounds,?and I obliged. Imagine! The campaign had degenerated to that level.

12/ My agents too were not spared. They fled their homes to avoid being arrested. Some policemen were moving around with a list containing their names. On polling day, as I was briefing some agents, I was informed that soldiers were coming to arrest me on orders of Paul Lokech.

13/ I immediately sped off to Pader as indeed the soldiers came in a Landcruiser. I then called my wife Julie to drive my car to the polling station in Pader & fled back to the nearest bush. The soldiers approached her in a terrific speed, jumped out & found Hon Otto not there!!!

14/ I fled to my home village near Pader town & stayed in the bush like a rebel even on voting day. My philosophy was that, if I am arrested on polling day, that would mark the end of my bid since it would send shock waves to my agents and they would flee.

15/ Phone calls kept coming in, how money was being distributed by people guarded by police; agents chased away from the polling area. If they tried to complain, the police constables (under orders from above) would shut them down, saying “We do not want kelele, just keep quiet!”

16/ There was nothing much I could do to shield my agents from harassment & intimidation since I was in the bush. I managed to vote at the eleventh hour, after a tearful hustle & then immediately returned to the bush as I got info that the soldiers were returning  to arrest me.

17/ The military surrounded the EC tally center.  My wife was initially blocked but later allowed to access it after consultations. DPC Ramathan Tai then threatened to arrest her for improperly wearing a mask. Lokech’s son was then declared the winner. I accepted the loss. But...

18/ On Jan 19, five days after elections #LOKECH reared his ugly head again.

I’d just been granted police bond & my car by Dep OC Pader, when I noticed the arrival of Lokech’s puppets Ramathan & Enock.

I overheard DPC Ramathan on phone saying: "Yes Sir, I will detain him".

19/ My police bond was just a mere piece of paper as my freedom was curtailed and I couldn't leave the police station. After drinking @PoliceUg water, I collapsed on the floor in the DPC's office & was then taken to Gulu hospital in an ambulance according to my wife's account.

20/ From Gulu hospital, I woke up at about midnight & wifey told me I was still under police detention. A policeman hurriedly opened the door at around 2 am & was shocked to find her there. As if he had a plan to inject me with sth deadly, he asked her: "You mean you slept here?"

21/ Gulu Hospital recommended my referral to another hospital but the Gulu OC station unjustifiably blocked us & didn't even allow my car engine to be started. I then lay on the open ground of Gulu Hospital from midday up to 6pm as the police wondered what to do next.

22/ All senior Acholi leaders were aghast & some called DIGP #Lokech in protest. At 6pm, I signed new bond papers for the "assault" of a person (I didn't know) during FUFA Drum tourney in Sept 2019. Then I was taken to Lacor ICU, Nakasero hospital & finally Nairobi hospital. TBC

23/ From Nairobi hospital, I wrote this on @WhatsApp:

"In case I do not make it, take this as a dying declaration that these people killed me. Such flagrant abuse of office & impunity by Paul Lokech & his boys should not be tolerated anywhere in Uganda." Nairobi, 26 Jan 2021.

24/ INTERLUDE — Quoting Shakespeare

Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,

And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;

Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,

And burn the long-liv'd Phoenix in her blood...

25/“1000 Kms in Handcuffs!”

Sometime in March, DIGP Lokech dispatched a team of detectives led by Francis Olugu, deputy director CID, from Kampala to Gulu to arrest @odongaotto over alleged non-renewal of a gun permit.

“With two double cabin pickups”—they caused quite a scene!

26/ First, they’d sneaked into my home & forcibly withdrawn my escort.

Now, plucking me from the gym at Boma Hotel in Gulu, they barked: “We need your gun. You’re under arrest!”

Handcuffed & sandwiched, they told me it was an order to drive me this way for 315 kms up to Kampala

27/ In KLA, they dumped me at Jinja road police station for 3 days.  No statement, no charge, nothing. That was Paul Lokech for you.  

Speaker @RebeccaKadagaUG then declared: "If Otto is not charged or released,  I will camp at police."  

This caused Paul Lokech & Co to panic.

28/ Next day they handcuffed me & drove me back to Gulu, another 320kms.  

In Karuma, Oluga told me: "You better leave Lokech's son alone if you want to be free. You can contest another time. Leave the election petition."

I had just filled the petition that week. Coincidence?

29/ From Gulu, we again set off for Pader where I would be locked up in police cells for one night yet my home is just 600m away & asked to walk “handcuffed” to Pader Court, purposely to humiliate me.

"It's an order and we have to walk to Court", the policeman said.

30/ The charade continued in court. No bail application until I had served a week’s remand in Gulu prison. Handcuffed again. The world had descended on me & I was at my lowest point in life. Why I was remanded to Gulu prison and yet Pader District has its own prison in Patongo?

31/ A week I returned to Pader Court & was granted bail. But I was immediately re-arrested & taken to Gulu Court for another case of 2019 that was coming up that same day. There I was granted bail but my passport was retained.  What a life!

32/ As of now, all those criminal cases against me have been dropped and I am a free man. My election petition also succeeded last Friday in Gulu High Court. But the following day, Paul Lokech DIED. What a unique turn of events. The God I serve is a living God & he sees...

33/ LESSONS LEARNT:

1. If God lifts you up, be just and fair to people under you.

2. People will always document what one does while in office.

3. God is not a sleeping God.

I release Paul Lokech from my heart. I am better placed to do it now. May God have mercy on his soul.