18 questions US-based investor and fmr. friend of slain Col. Engola wants authorities to answer

Quick note: Queen Dorothy Amolo remembers Col (Rtd) Okello Engola Macodwogo as a “well-creation warrior and best friend”.

Oyam, May 3, 2023: The murder of Col. Rtd Charles Okello Engola Macodwogo has caused mixed reactions across the country.

His friends, both locally and abroad are mourning him – with many describing him as a “fearless soldier and a hero” who helped pacify northern Uganda after two decades of LRA atrocities.

Macodwogo, before joining Parliament was the Oyam district LC5 chairman. Until his death, he was the State Minister of Labour, Employment and Industrial Relations and Oyam North MP.

On Tuesday morning, he was brutally gunned down by his bodyguard, Private Wilson Sabiiti, a UPDF soldier he had worked with for only one month.

As questions and strong emotional reactions continue to flow and answers as to why he was killed “like that” are demanded, Macodwogo’s friend, Queen Dorothy Amolo has come up with 18 questions for the authorities and investigators to attend to.

But first, she said: “I’m saddened and outraged by the reckless and pointless murder of my best friend, Col (Rtd) Charles Okello Engola Macodwogo, the Minister of State for Labour, Employment, and Industrial Relations on May 2^nd, 2023.”

Amolo, an international investor based in the United States hails from Kamdini Town Council, Oyam South, in Oyam district.

She is behind various community groups promoting wealth creation initiatives in Aber, Minakulu, Myene, Loro, Acaba, and Iceme sub-counties, among others. In her statement to TND News, she described the gruesome murder of Macodwogo as a direct hit on the development of young people, women, and vulnerable groups in Lango, Oyam district specifically.

Lango sub-region and the UPDF have lost a war hero, she added.

“We had just concluded a partnership to bring a radio station to the people of Northern Uganda and several pieces of equipment for the community hospital that he founded in Oyam North—a plan we set in motion months ago,” Amolo, who contested for the Oyam South MP seat in 2021, said.

To her, the whole story surrounding the murder of Col. Engola is absurd and it does not make sense and leaves more questions than answers.

Below are her tough questions

• How can a bodyguard who worked with the minister for less than five weeks kill him in cold blood because of non-payment of an allowance or salary?
• How much was this bodyguard owed, and who owed his allowance or salary?
• Isn’t it the government of Uganda that pays salaries for UPDF officers and all bodyguards assigned to ministers?
• Isn’t it the line ministry that is supposed to pay any allowance for aides and security officers assigned to ministers?
• If the allowance was meant to be paid by the minister himself, is a one-time missed payment sufficient ground to take the life of a man?
• How is the life of Minister Charles Okello Engola related to the non-payment of allowance or salary by the bodyguard’s employer (the Government of Uganda)?
• What happened to his long-term bodyguard before this new murderer?
• Why was this suicidal maniac transferred to his security detail in the first place?
• What were the background and history of this deadly killer?
• Why would the bodyguard wait to be transferred to the minister, work for one month, and murder him in cold blood?
• Was the transfer an inside hit?
• Which individual was this UPDF soldier guarding before being transferred to “protect” Minister Charles Okello Engola?
• How long did he work for his previous boss?
• What were the circumstances of his transfer?
• Who decided that this UPDF soldier be assigned to my friend, Hon. Charles Okello Engola?
• Who approved the transfer?
• Why didn’t the bodyguard murder his previous boss?
• Who wanted Col (Rtd) Charles Okello Engola Macodwogo, the Minister of State for Labour, Employment, and Industrial Relations, dead?

“These questions do not heap blanket blame on the UPDF as a body, nor do they blame the government of Uganda.” “This message is geared towards finding the truth behind the reckless murder of the Minister of State for Labour, Employment, and Industrial Relations, a member of parliament from Oyam North constituency, a friend, a husband, a brother, a father, a grandfather, and a retired UPDF soldier,” she made it clear.

“We demand a thorough investigation. The dead bodyguard must be investigated in detail. All his movements, whom he spoke to within the last six months, his work history, his family, and all those who initiated and authorized his transfer to the minister, etc. This was not an ordinary suicidal murder.”

“This was an execution,” she stated, adding, “My dear friend, you were a lion, the King of the Jungle. It is unfortunate that a rat took your life! May your dear soul rest in eternal peace.