Two Ugandan rebel leaders arrested by the Congolese government soldiers have been handed over to Ugandan authorities in Arua district. They are Captain Geoffrey Okot, a commander of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army and Colonel Yosa Abdu of the shadow People’s Redemption Army (PRA). The suspects were handed over to Ibrahim Abiriga, Arua Resident District Commissioner on Monday following their arrest from Birinka in DRC where they were allegedly setting up a rebel training camp.
The suspects were captured with two guns and taken to Bunia Central prison before being transferred to Uganda. Abiriga says that he engaged the Congolese authorities to hand over the suspects after they were released from jail. Captain Okot, who claims to be a former student of Sir Samuel Baker College, says that he was kidnapped by the LRA rebels in 2007 and later taken to South Sudan.
He says that the rebel trained him and handed him but he escaped to DRC three years ago because he does not like war. Captain Okot says that in DRC he was arrested by government forces and detained in Bunya Central Prison where he spent one year. Okot, who hails from Pamenon village in Gulu district, is happy that he is finally back home. His counterpart Colonel Yosa Abdu says that he joined the PRA movement in 2007 when he was doing business in Koboko district.
Yosa is one of the people suspected by the army to be behind the recruitment of PRA rebels in West Nile that was once linked to FDC leader Kiiza Besigye. The army has expressed concern over the failure by Abiriga to surrender the former rebel leaders to the military. Lt. Mark Mutono, the UPDF spokesperson for West Nile says they were surprised to learn that after receiving rebels at such a rank Abiriga kept them at his home. He however says that they have asked their army headquarters in Kampala to intervene and compel the RDC to hand over the former rebels to the army.
