Amid reports that three senior officers are eager to replace him, deputy inspector general of police Martin Okoth Ochola has shot back: he does not intend to retire yet.
In a Monday interview with The Observer at the Police headquarters at Naguru, Ochola said those officers who are eyeing his job “should stop daydreaming” and concentrate on their jobs.
“There are some AIGPs who go in the police corridors gossiping that they will take over my office after my contract expires. Tell them that they are just daydreamers,” he said.
On Monday, The Observer reported that three senior police officers have been shortlisted to replace Ochola as deputy IGP when his contract ends in July this year. (See, Kaweesi, Ndugutse, Yiga in race for deputy IGP job, The Observer, January 16, 2017). The story said Ochola had been offered a new contract but he had turned it down.
However, during the interview, Ochola said while it is true that his current contract expires on July 31 this year, he has already applied to the police authority for a third five-year contract as deputy IGP.
The police authority, the highest decision-making body in the Uganda Police Force, is headed by the minister of internal affairs.
“If the police authority renews my contract, it means I will still stay in this office up to 2020; so, those who think I am leaving now are day dreaming and should stop that,” he added.
Ochola criticised his colleagues who he said were already plotting for his job when he still has the energy to serve the police and Uganda.
“Can you imagine I am not even 60 years and some people are trying to chase me out of office? I am still energetic and strong,” he said.
Ochola was appointed for his first term as deputy IGP in July 2011. When it ended in July 2014, Ochola got a second term, which ends in about six months’ time.
Ochola explained that appointment of a new deputy IGP is not by nomination; the IGP appoints a competent deputy and forwards his or her name to the police authority for approval.
However, according to Ochola, some young police officers are trying to use intrigue to satisfy their personal ambitions of taking over his office.
“It is good for some people to have ambitions but the way they are pursuing them is wrong,” he said. “Some AIGPs have rotten departments and instead of improving them, they go out there to gossip about how they will take over my office.”
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