“Be law abiding and concentrate,” Commissioner Otucu to 44 City residents who joined UPDF 

Lira | Eighty applicants from Lira City who expressed interest in joining the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) were not all successful.

tndNews understands that only 44 people qualified. There are fourteen females and thirty males.

They were immediately transported to a training school in Masindi.

However, there were some illegalities in the recruitment process. Nine applicants, four from Lira City and five from Lira District, had fake academic documents.

They were all arrested and detained before being granted police bond and released from Lira City CPS.

The exercise began at 6:00 a.m. and continued until 8:00 p.m. at Akii Bua Stadium.

“The process was very transparent, our office was well represented, and we witnessed every process,” said Bonny Otucu, Lira City’s Assistant RCC.

“I appealed to the UPDF recruits to be law-abiding citizens, concentrate during training, and be patriotic because they will work with the wananchi.”

Assistant RCC Otucu encouraged the 44 to take advantage of the opportunities in the UPDF and continue their studies after completing the training because the opportunity exists.

Col. Peter Mushere, Team Six’s leader in northern Uganda, congratulated those who made it to the final moment.

“These people here suffered in applying, in physical fitness, medicals; I don’t want to take somebody who’s not supposed to be taken.

Also read: UPDF disqualifies 10 for presenting fraudulent documents in Adjumani 

“What we do is ensure that we verify until when we get them. Be disciplined, we have taken you when you are healthy, remain healthy. I don’t want to hear that anybody of you has died of AIDS, or Hepatitis there, you have left when you are okay,” Col. Mushere told the 44.

He warned the trainees about bad habits that could make them sick and useless.

“You have joined on merit,” the team leader stated. “Why you were suffering from the morning was to ensure we take ‘merits’ not ‘short cuts’ – so, this should give you the energy to go and work knowing that you have gone on merits not short cuts.”

Col. Mushere admitted that some people were arrested. These people, he said, tried to forge, tried to bribe.

“Those are not going to help the ideology of the UPDF, those are not the people we want; we want people who are going to work for their country.”