Kony personal secretary dead
Jan 07, 2004
THE army has identified the second Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander killed in an air raid on the rebels’ high command meeting as Lt. Col. Paul Okodi, the personal secretary to Joseph Kony.
By Dennis Ojwee
THE army has identified the second Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander killed in an air raid on the rebels’ high command meeting as Lt. Col. Paul Okodi, the personal secretary to Joseph Kony.
A rescued captive identified Okodi’s body, which was lying next to that of Lt. Col. Sam Opio, the other rebel commander killed when a UPDF helicopter gunship hit the LRA high command at Opate in Lacek-Ocot, Atanga sub-county in Pader district on Monday. Eleven rebels were killed.
The bodies were burnt by the bomb fire and were beginning to rot in the jungles.
The New Vision counted seven bodies. Most bodies, some of them female, had been strapped on big wooden sticks, to be ferried away from the scene.
One of the 36 rescued captives said they used to carry away bodies of rebels killed in battle.
Clothes, beans and peas littered the scene. There was also a foldable white plastic chair reportedly belonging to the LRA vice-chairman, Brig. Vincent Otti.
One of the other two wooden chairs was said to be for Dominic Ongwen, commonly known as Odomi.
Briefing three journalists, 30 minutes after the UPDF helicopter that brought them to the scene crash-landed, the commanding officer of the 509th brigade, Lt. Col. Paul Lukech, said there were about 200 rebels at the meeting.
“By 11:00am when the LRA group had gathered, our mobile forces of the 65th battalion had closed in from the northeastern side of the scene. The rebels had not known that our force was within the area because they had got disorganised by our helicopters that were pounding the area,†he said.
“Lt. Sam Opio reportedly commanded the LRA in the battle. We lost no soldier and none of them sustained injury. We got two LRA pips, one belonging to Okodi,†Lukech said.
The UPDF overall intelligence officer in charge of operation Iron Fist, Lt. Charles Otema-
Awany, and the Gulu-based northern army spokesman, Lt. Paddy Ankunda, accompanied the journalists to the battlefield.
The New Vision saw a multiple grenade launcher, one rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) pipe, seven antipersonnel mines and five machine guns, all with labels in Arabic.
There were also two bombs for the B-10 guns, 11 RPG bombs, a solar panel and AK47 riffle magazines.
Smoke was still billowing out of the area.
Meanwhile, Emmy Allio reports that the army in Kitgum has recovered an anti-aircraft gun from the rebels.
An LRA lieutenant took the army to a site in Okidi village, southwest of Kitgum town where the 12.7mm gun was unearthed.
unearthed a light machine-gun and two pipes of a rocket-propelled gun.
THE army has identified the second Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander killed in an air raid on the rebels’ high command meeting as Lt. Col. Paul Okodi, the personal secretary to Joseph Kony.
A rescued captive identified Okodi’s body, which was lying next to that of Lt. Col. Sam Opio, the other rebel commander killed when a UPDF helicopter gunship hit the LRA high command at Opate in Lacek-Ocot, Atanga sub-county in Pader district on Monday. Eleven rebels were killed.
The bodies were burnt by the bomb fire and were beginning to rot in the jungles.
The New Vision counted seven bodies. Most bodies, some of them female, had been strapped on big wooden sticks, to be ferried away from the scene.
One of the 36 rescued captives said they used to carry away bodies of rebels killed in battle.
Clothes, beans and peas littered the scene. There was also a foldable white plastic chair reportedly belonging to the LRA vice-chairman, Brig. Vincent Otti.
One of the other two wooden chairs was said to be for Dominic Ongwen, commonly known as Odomi.
Briefing three journalists, 30 minutes after the UPDF helicopter that brought them to the scene crash-landed, the commanding officer of the 509th brigade, Lt. Col. Paul Lukech, said there were about 200 rebels at the meeting.
“By 11:00am when the LRA group had gathered, our mobile forces of the 65th battalion had closed in from the northeastern side of the scene. The rebels had not known that our force was within the area because they had got disorganised by our helicopters that were pounding the area,†he said.
“Lt. Sam Opio reportedly commanded the LRA in the battle. We lost no soldier and none of them sustained injury. We got two LRA pips, one belonging to Okodi,†Lukech said.
The UPDF overall intelligence officer in charge of operation Iron Fist, Lt. Charles Otema-
Awany, and the Gulu-based northern army spokesman, Lt. Paddy Ankunda, accompanied the journalists to the battlefield.
The New Vision saw a multiple grenade launcher, one rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) pipe, seven antipersonnel mines and five machine guns, all with labels in Arabic.
There were also two bombs for the B-10 guns, 11 RPG bombs, a solar panel and AK47 riffle magazines.
Smoke was still billowing out of the area.
Meanwhile, Emmy Allio reports that the army in Kitgum has recovered an anti-aircraft gun from the rebels.
An LRA lieutenant took the army to a site in Okidi village, southwest of Kitgum town where the 12.7mm gun was unearthed.
unearthed a light machine-gun and two pipes of a rocket-propelled gun.