Cultural leaders in Lango want Engola’s son to replace him as Member of Parliament for Oyam North Constituency.
At the time of his death, Rtd. Col. Charles Okello Engola was the Member of Parliament for Oyam North Constituency in Oyam district.
The Parliamentary Election Act mandates the Electoral Commission to organise an election within three months when a constituency seat falls vacant.
According to KFM, a local radio station in Uganda, the Lango cultural leaders under the leadership of the Paramount Chief Yosam Odur, want the vacant Oyam North constituency seat to be reserved for the family of the late Engola.
The leaders told the radio station this will be one of the ways to appreciate the deceased’s role in restoring peace in Lango sub-region when he commanded the UPDF and defeated the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels which had caused anguish to the people of northern Uganda for over 2 decades.
The prime minister for Lango Cultural Foundation, Robert Ajal, came up with the motion of fronting a family member for the Oyam North parliamentary seat during a cabinet meeting.
“We should consider a possibility of being replaced by his son in parliament. We implore government to do proper investigation and get us information before the burial,” Ajal said.
He was shot dead by his bodyguard Pte. Wilson Sabiiti at his home in Kyanja on Tuesday, May 2 2023 as he prepared to go for Cabinet meeting that day.
Residents in Kyanja near the minister’s home said the bodyguard got out of Engola’s house after killing him shooting in the air and shouting his frustrations with Government over delayed and poor pay. They said he later entered a saloon and took his own life.
