Chua West Member of Parliament Philip Okin Ojara and three other members of the Forum for Democratic Change-FDC party in Omoro District have been arrested by Police and army officers.
Okin was arrested near the FDC party offices in Opit Town Council at about 12:30 am on Thursday, a few hours before the Omoro County By-election.
The MP has been leading the FDC team in mobilization and campaign for the party flag bearer Justine Odong.
According to Patrick Amuriat Oboi the FDC party President, security personnel raided the FDC office in Opit Town Council before violently arresting Okin who was then whisked to Gulu Central Police Station where he is being detained on unknown charges.
Oboi added that several materials including their agents’ letters were confiscated by the security personnel during the raid and that this has incapacitated them from closely monitoring the by-election in various polling stations.
This, he says is already a clear sign of malpractice in the ongoing by-election arguing that government vehicles with concealed number plates are being driven by agents of NRM candidate Andrew Ojok Oulanyah, Resident District Commissioners, and security personnel.
The FDC Mobilizer in Acholi Sub-region Wilson Chagga Oyat says that the security personnel are deliberately targeting their polling supervisors to disorganize their observance of the ongoing polls.
The Aswa River Region Police Spokesperson David Ongom Mudong confirmed that security personnel conducted several operations last night that led to the arrest of individuals, but declined to identify those arrested and where they are being detained.
He noted that the arrests were conducted at various checkpoints to weed out non-voters in Omoro whom intelligence suspects are plotting to cause chaos and that the arrests are random and do not target any political party members as alleged by the opposition political party leaders.
