The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Gulu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A security guard attached to Gulu College of Health Sciences is seeking justice after being assaulted by the Gulu Resident District Commissioner, Maj. Santo Okot Lapolo mid last month.
Simon Ojara alleges that Maj Lapolo slapped him severally on September 16th for declining to open the gate of the College when a Covid19 patient was rushed to the facility for treatment.
Gulu College of Health Sciences, which seats next to Gulu Regional Referral Hospital is the designated treatment unit for Covid19 patients. More than 177 positive cases evacuated from eight districts of Acholi sub-region are being treated at the college.
Ojara, who was on a duty on the fateful night disclosed that he was under strict instructions from management not to open the gate for new patients because of space constraints. He says when an ambulance evacuating a positive patient approached the gate he declined to open.
“The RDC was the called in and he coerced me to open the gate and he slapped me while the District Police Commander Emmanuel Mafundo looked on before he snatched the keys and gave to the policemen.” Ojara told URN.
George Okot, the Head of Security at the College explained that they informed Grace Aninge the Principal of the College who then instructed them to go and report the matter to Gulu Central Police Station.
“I accompanied Ojara to the Police to report a case of assault but the officers at the counter backed off from the case and told us the RDC is a high ranking officer in the district and only their superiors are better placed to handle the case,” Okot narrated.
Aninge revealed that she approached the Regional Police Commander Ezekiel Emitu who intervened and compelled his subordinates to record the case vide SD REF:50/19/09/2020
The guard was issued with police Form 3, a copy of which our reporter has seen for a medical examination at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital.
Lapolo denied the accusations, saying on the fateful night he got distress calls from the DPC and the referral hospital that he needed to intervene because a critically ill patient was being denied access to the treatment facility.
Maj Lapolo is not new to controversies. In 2007, the then RDC of Pader ordered for the caning of Lonzio Odora, a Religious Education teacher at Patongo Primary School in then Agago County after the RDC caught him red-handed administering corporal punishment to pupils.
He later apologized to the teaching fraternity in the District for the incident.
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