{UAH} Gulu crime preventers hoodwinked into joining anti-Mbabazi demos-police should arrest OTTO AND HIS ACCOMPLICES
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Gulu crime preventers hoodwinked into joining anti-Mbabazi demos
Some of the demonstrators march at Kamdinin trading centre in Oyam District last Friday in protest aganist Amama Mbabazi's proposed visit. PHOTO BY JULIUS OCUNGI
Posted Tuesday, July 14 2015 at 01:00
GULU- Crime preventers in Gulu district have confessed that they were hoodwinked into joining anti- Amama Mbabazi demonstrations.
The security officials claim they were told they were going for training in Masindi district.
The crime preventers ended up among hundreds of local residents, including youth leaders and politicians in northern Uganda, who last Friday walked 10km from Kamdini Trading Centre to Karuma on Kampala-Gulu highway to express their opposition to the former prime minister's presidential aspiration and pending visit to northern region.
The demonstration led by Aruu County MP Odonga Otto attracted some people from West Nile, Acholi, Lango and Karamoja Sub-regions.
However, among those in the precession were 40 crime preventers from Gulu district, who police registered for training a month ago.
A reliable source, who spoke to Daily Monitor on condition of anonymity said, the crime preventers were assembled at Aywee Police Post, where they spent a night prior to their Friday journey with the hope of going for further training.
NRM boss shocked
Mr James Ochen, the NRM chairperson, Pece Division, where some of the crime preventers were ferried from, acknowledged that those youth were duped.
"The way they took these crime preventers was a shock to us; they had no knowledge of where they were going. We want to convene a meeting to understand what transpired," Mr Ochen said.
A crime preventer told Daily Monitor at the weekend that they were mobilised on Wednesday and were told to be ready for a possible journey to Masindi on Friday.
"We boarded Northern Tours Bus on Friday morning. All of us thought we were destined for the training. But before we set off for the journey, we were given some black T-shirts with Anti-Mbabazi slogan and told to put them on," he said.
He added that everyone wondered what was happening when they received anti-Mbabazi T-shirts.
"We realised the truth of the matter when we reached Kamdini Trading centre in Oyam. We found hundreds of other people with the T-Shirts warming up to march in protest against Mbabazi [planned] consultative visit to the north. And that is when we realised we had been deceived to demonstrate," he said, adding: "We are still discussing on ways as crime preventers to approach our leaders, we want them to explain why we were deceived, and why we ended up in a political demonstration."
He said they were never given anything to eat or drink as they embarked on the tedious 10 kilometre march from Kamdini in Oyam district to Heritage gardens in Karuma, Nwoya District, where Mr Otto addressed the rally.
"We have failed to understand the relationship between the state and Mr Otto since all the information was passed on by the district security officials. Mr Otto should apologise for using vulnerable people for his selfish gains," he said.
Efforts to get a comment from Mr Otto were futile as his known phone numbers were unavailable. However, in an interview last Friday, he dismissed claims that he was being used by the government to influence the youth.
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