ACHOLI SUB-REGION: The remains of Idro Edward a Madi youth who was allegedly murdered in cold blood by a suspected Acholi gang group on September 19, 2021, has finally been laid to rest.
Idro who was killed as he headed to the garden with two of his relatives was buried yesterday, September 23, 2021.
The burial that was scheduled for Wednesday, September 22, 2021, was called off following a day-long stalemate with the security after the council of elders from the Ali clan demanded that the body be buried at the scene of murder since the killers were unknown so that they would perform rituals to invoke the spirit of the deceased.
A representative of Ali clan council of elders presided over the funeral ceremony that ended peacefully as sombre mood engulfed Zoka C area; the council of elders went ahead performing cultural rituals to revoke the spirit of deceased to haunt his killers until they die a miserable death.
The Ali clan elders called upon the youths not to seek revenge put purse the case with a lot of patience while believing that one time justice will be done.
One of the survivors of the attack Buni Justine said on the fateful day the deceased Idro Edward requested them to go and start harvesting his one acre of soya beans since he has got a willing buyer with good offer.
The Adjumani district vice-chairman Kaijuka Richard, who transported the body from Mungula health center IV after post-mortem, lashed out at the commanders of the UPDF and Uganda police for being impartial to the extent that they claimed they were not aware Zoka C military barracks is in Adjumani district.
Vexed Kaijuka Richard said the security went ahead demanding leaders from Adjumani to get permission from their counterparts in Amuru before they could be allowed to bury the dead at crime scene as requested by the Ali clan chief Chandiga Ben.
The 63 battalion political commissars Ronald however stood his ground reckoning that the scene of murder is 4 kilometres from the barracks and not even motorable, besides tension between the Madi and Acholi communities was gaining ground.
Seeing the hopelessness of the situation, the council of elders and relatives decided to transport the body to the fathers’ home in Zoka C at around 6:30 pm, prompting feast fights between the two warring communities at Zoka C trading center.
The district vice chairman Kaijuka Richard who was trapped in the middle of the fracas had to make a frantic telephone call to Adjumani RDC for a rescue. The UPDF deployed swiftly escorting him away from the trading center.
Earlier in the morning, there was heavy deployment of UPDF at Nyabila trading center along the way to Zoka C as mourners moved in large numbers to bury the deceased.
The land conflict between the Madi and Acholi communities dates back in 2006 when relative peace returned to the area that also followed the disbanding of the heavily populated IDP camps in Pabo Sub County.
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