Probe O’Toole’s murder, says bishop

By Okello JabweliKOTIDO diocesan Bishop Dennis Kiwanuka has called for a full and transparent probe of the circumstances under which Fr. Declan O’Toole and his two employees were killed.In a report released recently, the Bishop said a transparent probe involving the local civilian population was necessary to restore the peoples’ confidence in the army. “It is still not clear in people’s minds why Fr. Declan and his two companions were ambushed and murdered,” Kiwanuka observed. Fr. Declan, 31, a Mill Hill missionary, and his aides Patrick Longoli and Fidelle Longole were on March 21 found murdered near Kalosarich UPDF detachment. Two soldiers Cpl. James Omedio and Pvt. Muhammad Abdulla, were subsequently shot dead by firing squad after a Field Court Martial found them guilty of murdering the trio.“Several questions still remain unsatisfactorily answered. Why was nothing at all taken from Fr. Declan’s vehicle? People are asking why the Field Court Martial was conducted at Kalosarich where there were no civilians. If the culprits admitted authorship of the crime, what reasons did they give? And lastly, why was the execution carried out so soon?”Kiwanuka said Declan’s murder was “aggravated by the fact that since the beginning of this year six other people have died at the hands of soldiers and about 578 head of cattle have disappeared through their [army] hands.”He suggested that as a gesture of reconciliation, the Government should compensate the widows and families of the deceased.