Bukwo CAO shot 26 times in targeted attack: Police

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Police investigations have revealed that the Bukwo Chief Administrative Officer Charles Ogwang, was killed in a targeted attack and not armed robbery or domestic terrorism.

Ogwang was shot from Kiryowa village, a few kilometres after Matugga town as he was driving his official car registration number UG-0865Z from Kampala to Lira on Friday night. He later died at Bombo Military Hospital where he had been rushed for treatment.

Police detectives have since established the CAO’s movements from Bukwo via Mbale district to Kampala where he spent his daytime together with his driver Eric Chemusto and some individuals who have been identified. According to the police, Ogwang dropped off the driver later in the evening at Liberty Guest House, Kireka at 9pm and drove himself to Lira through the Kampala-Gulu highway.

From Kireka, he used the Northern bypass to Bwaise before making a stopover at Kagoma where he spent one and a half hours. The Police CCTV camera captured him at 11:12pm at Kiryagonga, soon after resuming his journey.

Police spokesperson Fred Enanga explains that preliminary investigations indicate that Ogwang was shortly after stopped by armed men in Kiryowa village and parked alongside the road thinking that he had been stopped by security personnel. His eventual killers asked him about the whereabouts of Ogwang but he told them that he was just a driver.

Enanga narrates that the killers picked up his wallet and soon after, they established that he was the person they were looking for. In the aftermath, Ogwang was shot 26 times, and his motor vehicle was set ablaze.

Enanga said that police got the narrations from a medical officer whom Ogwang talked to at Bombo Military Hospital and two occupants of a tricycle who witnessed the shooting. The occupants of the tri-cycle abandoned it on the road upon hearing the shooting and hid in the bushes where they allegedly witnessed the shooting and later saw the assailants filming the attack on a smartphone.

Police strongly believe that the murder was premeditated although the motive is not yet established. Enanga says that so far, four suspects have been arrested including his driver to help in the investigations of what he called senseless murder.

By the time the CAO was shot, local leaders in Bukwo had written to the Ministry of Local Government asking it to replace Ogwang saying he was irregular at work, failed to discipline errant staff, witch hunt and forged District Executive Committee minutes among others.

The District Executive members had also threatened to lay down tools until he is replaced.

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