Pader Resident District Commissioner has given a week’s ultimatum to 80 youths accused of terrorizing locals in Puranga Sub-County to surrender to security authorities or be “crashed”.
The gang members who identify themselves as “Market Defence Unit-MDU” are operating in Alepu Village, Laminocwida Parish, and Oret parishes under the command of one Olagara from Alepu ‘B’ Village and his second in command known by the alias Boy Small, also a resident of Alepu ‘B’ village.
Milton Odongo, the Pader RDC in his September 9thm 2023 letter to the District Police Commander notes that the group is always armed with knives, machettes, timber with nails, and chains and is operating around Cuk Adek market, causing sleepless nights among the locals.
Odongo says the gang is said to be involved in acts of waylaying and assaulting community members, robbery, raping women and young girls, burglary, and fighting among others. He asked the DPC to “sort out” the gang within one week from the date of writing the letter, saying they were “a serious security threat to the freedom of the community.”
“Follow up the cases…and ensure that the culprits are arrested charged and prosecuted,” Odongo noted. Odongo says 20 of the group members have been identified together with their parents, while 60 are still unknown. I’m told the group has been operating for more than a year, and no action has been taken against them because some of their parents are leaders,” Odongo said.
Abraham Tukundane, the Pader DPC, said they are already doing all things possible to ensure that the problem is solved. According to Tukundane preliminary information they have got shows that the gang members come from the Otuke district and have not been operating for long.
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