The spike in criminal activity in the northern Gulu town is starting to worry people.

People now fear to move at night lest they are attacked and killed by unknown hit men. Several locals interviewed recently by The Observer said they close their business premises early and fear to move at night. At about 7pm on November 28, 2016, we arrived in Gulu Town.

As we drove around the city, it was quite evident that many businesses barely stay open beyond 8pm. Denis Okello, who works at 95.7 Rupiny FM and is known to locals as 2Pee was attacked. He has spent at least 10 days at St. Mary’s hospital Lacor in Gulu.

He was attacked on his way home from work at about 3am in the morning. According to Samuel Okaka, the programme producer at Rupiny FM, the attackers beat Okello  into a coma. They left him lying helpless in a pool of blood, he said.

“He was hit badly [on November 25, 2016],” Okaka told The Observer. 
“The security situation in Gulu at the moment is not good especially at night. Hit men are everywhere,” Okaka explained.

Okaka said on the fateful night, Okello was rushed to Gulu referral hospital in critical condition and in the morning referred to St Mary’s hospital Lacor.

“His condition as I talk now is stable,” he said.

When we visited him on November 29, at the hospital, Okello was unable to speak. He looked powerless as he lay on the bed. But the doctor said he was much better in that state. Okello sustained three deep cuts on his fore head.

MOTHER SEEKS JUSTICE 

His mother, Lilly Orach, seems helpless as well. She depends immensely on her son. She is taking care of him in the hospital.

“Look at my son he is in so much pain,” she told us.

Her only request to the government and security personnel was to bring her son’s attackers to book. “We are praying he gets better. But we also hope that police finds the people who did this to him,” she said.

The Gulu regional referral principal administrator, Dr Muhammad Mubiru, said police should not take the killings lightly but should find the killers and their motive.

“Just last week on Wednesday [November 23, 2016] around Boma hotel, another person was attacked. But he died on arrival at the hospital,” Mubiru said.

He explained that the latest attacks have left residents so terrified. One Mc Lucky, who works with Speak FM, told The Observer he was with Okello prior to his unfortunate ordeal. Mc Lucky, however, said the attackers seem hell bent on killing people.

“We fail to understand what the purpose of these people are…because even if they hit you, they don’t take anything from you,” he wondered.

Lucky said the insecurity ahead of Christmas has paralysed business. “Business is down completely because if you see, Sunday [November 27, 2016] was karaoke night. The turnout was not as usual,” he revealed.

“We could have least 500 people attend…last month; five people have been killed [in these attacks].  Even yesterday [November, 28] there were lots of bullets around,” he said.

For Vince Okwela, an operator of a mobile money kiosk in Gulu town, he closes early because “In the outskirts of town someone gets you on the way and attacks you. They use hammers…so I have to close early…” Okwela explained.

According to the residents interviewed for this story, reported incidents of violent attacks in the district have peaked in the last one month with both police and military personnel stepping up deployment last week. 

The hit and run tactics used by the attackers, they say, reawakens the turbulent past experienced in the Northern region at the hands of the Lord’s Resistance Army.

Interviewed for a comment, Martin Okoyo, the Gulu District Police Commander at the police headquarters in Gulu, said; “The PRO is the right person to respond.”

He referred this writer to Patrick Jimmy Okama, the Aswa River Region Police spokesperson. Okama was not in his office either.

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