Police Chief Gen. Kale Kayihura has said that the assailants who attacked Gulu Police Barracks yesterday evening were on a mission to rescue one of the inmates, Dan Odia, effectively ruling out the rumours that have been spreading that they were a rebel outfit.
“They didn’t want Odia to appear in court. This is the same group that attacked LDUs in Opit, still in Gulu, on May 27 and stole guns that they used yesterday evening,” Gen. Kayihura said while speaking to the media at the Police Headquarters in Naguru a few minutes ago.
The IGP said that one UPDF soldier, Corporal Moses Edema, was killed in the attack on Gulu Police Barracks last evening.
“One soldier, Corporal Moses Edema, was killed, while other soldiers and policemen were injured. Another civilian who was coming from a funeral was also injured,” Gen. Kayihura said while speaking to the media at the Police Headquarters in Naguru a few minutes ago.
Gen. Kayihura further clarified that the attackers were twelve in number, all of whom ran away and left behind six guns once engaged by security forces.
“What sort of people are those, who dropped all their weapons and fled?” Gen. Kayihura –laughing off claims that the attackers are a serious rebel group to worry about– rhetorically asked before adding that investigations are underway to establish the identities as well as intentions of the assailants.
At the same time, however, the IGP has branded as ‘irresponsible and needlessly alarming’ those media houses which reported that the attack on Gulu Police Station had turned the whole of Gulu district and Northern Uganda into ‘a war zone.’
“We condemn those who exaggerate the situation, giving their own versions of events without asking us who are responsible. They rush and create unnecessary alarm. You create unnecessarily panic, all you who do it, and I’m going to work together with the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) to bring you to book. In the name of security.”