The former Aruu County Member of Parliament, Samuel Odonga Otto, is on the run and wanted by police for aggravated robbery and torture. It is alleged that on 30th April 2023, at around 3:30 p.m., Otto and a group of vigilantes armed with pangas and sticks were captured on video cruelly beating three victims, who had gone to buy charcoal, in one of the homesteads in Laorogali village, Atanga sub-county, in Pader district.
According to SCP Fred Enanga, the police spokesperson, the victims who were assaulted have been identified as Ssemanda Charles, Wagwana Yusuf, and Takafa Erisata, who had loaded 12 bags of charcoal in their Fuso truck registration number UBA 600B.
Otto and his group assaulted the victims using sticks and pangas and allegedly robbed them of Ugx 1,097,700/= (One million ninety-seven thousand, seven hundred shillings only) from Ssemanda Charles.
They also vandalized the Fuso truck and stole two motor vehicle batteries, a motor vehicle radio, a woofer, a motor vehicle key, and a tarp line. The attackers further damaged the windscreen, fuel tank, and tyres of the Fuso truck.
Enanga has appealed to Odonga Otto and the general public to desist from all forms of torture and criminality, as this violates the provisions of the Constitution of Uganda.
“We wish to remind the public that torture, whether through the use of corporal punishment or any other form of physical assault, is punishable by law. We therefore urge the former lawmaker to avoid taking the law into his hands and misleading other members of the public into acts of lawlessness and impunity,” Enanga stated.
According to reports from the territorial police in Aswa region, Otto formed a group with a criminal record ranging from rape, defilement, robbery, theft, torture, and others, all committed on his orders.