Lt. Colonel Ogole dead

By Bonney Odongo and Patrick Okino

Lt. Col. John Charles Ogole the former Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) brigade commander, who in the 1980s played a central role in fighting the then National Resistant Army (NRA) rebels in Luweero, has died.

Relatives said he died on Tuesday night at his home in London few days after he was removed from Central Middlesex Hospital where he was admitted since January 17, 2014.

A close source said he was suffering from prostate cancer.

Ogole, 69, who hailed from Adyeda Parish, Loro Sub County Oyam district fled the country in 1985 when the military junta of General Tito Okello Lutwa took over power from Milton Obote.

The Uganda National Liberation Army fought alongside Tanzanian forces in the Uganda-Tanzania war that led to the overthrow of Idi Amin's regime in April 1979 and became the national army serving the UNLF government formed under Yusuf Lule who was ousted in June 1979. He was replaced by Godfrey Binaisa.

 In May 1980, Binaisa was placed under house arrest and the Presidential Commission took over until the 1980 elections.
Uganda People's Congress (UPC) Milton Obote won the polls but some UNLF founding members including Yoweri Museveni contested the results and launched a guerrilla war.

Ogole commanded several offensives against the NRA between 1983/84.

UNLF suffered another blow when a tribal conflict between the Acholi and Langi, led to the coup d’état that brought in making Tito Okello Lutwa as president. The UNLA was defeated by Museveni’s National Resistance Army in January 1986.