Government has been tasked to compensate the family of a Gulu City police officer, Simon Onencan Okot who was shot dead by unknown assailants.
The unfortunate incident happened on the wee hours of Friday 14th, May 2020 near the main entrance to Gulu Police barracks. Police Constable Onencan aged 34, was attached to the Field Force Unit – FFU.
Onencan was deployed to guard St. Tereza Primary School, a private education institution located in the East Division of Gulu City at the time of his death. He was shot with four bullets in the chest, stomach, arm and leg respectively.
The officer was laid to rest on Friday last week at his ancestral home in Omee village, Palwong Parish, Pabbo Sub-County in Amuru District, but the Uganda Police Force – UPF management handed over only 890,000 Shillings to the family to cater for burial expenses.
Now, the deceased’s young brother Justine Opwonya, says that the two widows and the four children who are aged between 1-10 years have lost their sole breadwinner and require more financial support to help them cope with the irreversible loss since the deceased was killed in the line of duty.
However, Fred Eriku, the officer in charge of the Criminal Intelligent Investigations Department – CIID for Aswa River Region Police says investigations have not yet yielded much and further inquiries were still ongoing to ascertain Onencan’s killers.
He added that the public always points accusing fingers at the police for delaying investigations yet cases of capital nature like murder are sometimes very complex to probe and may last between 3-6 months or even a year to adduce concrete prosecution evidence.
Following the incident, an AK-47 assault rifle registration number 56-5827712-32506 with 30 rounds belonging to the deceased, his motorcycle, a phone and four cartridges were discovered near his body.
