President Yoweri Museveni has told mourners at the official State funeral for the late State Minister for Labour Rt. Col. Charles Patrick Engola that the fallen State Minister for Labour was sacrificed by some problems that were not of his own making .
The president said that army should use the tragic death of Engola to sort out what he called ‘dark areas’ within the security agencies .
The state funeral in honour of Engola one of the UPDF commanders that fought hard to pacify northern Uganda was held at the Kololo Independence grounds .
President Museveni who said that he had been briefed by the Chief of Defence Forces explained that Engola had nothing to do with the cause of his death .
“ There is no way you can say the soldier did what he did because of the actions of Minister Engola. The soldier had been there for only one month. It was not Engola, it was something else that triggered him.
“Engola was a patriot but he ended up being killed by a bad product produced by our system. Hon. Col. (Rtd) Charles Okello Engola was a patriot and a good soldier. He fought effectively against the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) rebels and people were able to go back , cook and have a normal life without being scared of the enemy.
I apologize to the family of the late Engola, the people of Lango, Uganda and Africa. This is a very big embarrassment from the army that somebody deployed to guard a useful cadre ended up killing him.
A board of inquiry has been instituted by the army to establish the cause of the shooting. I call upon the political class to go back to the NRA line of sacrifice. Our ideology, strategy and work method was voluntarism, patriotism and sacrifice, not big salaries and other benefits. This embarrassment could have been avoided. I want to apologise to the family and to the Ugandan people, Museveni stated .
The President also dismissed suggestions that Private Wilson Sabiti who killed Engola was struggling financially and could not afford a day’s meal.
President Museveni told mourners that the Guard Battalion at Bombo sends food for escorts through the ADC of their principals.
“ Bodyguards should not be the responsibility of the principal to feed them. It should be the unit to send them food and Guard Battalion should make arrangements for accommodation not necessarily renting building but they can have tents,” the Commander in Chief stated .
Museveni says Engola was a gallant principled soldier
“I first saw him in 1986 at Lubiri Barracks manning a 14.5 anti- aircraft gun. You could tell at the time that he was a patriot because initially the political elite from the northern region were disorganizing the people to be against the National Resistance Army (NRA). He was part of the cadres from the north who rejected that nonsense,” Museveni stated .
He added : “ when the soldiers come from the army and mix with the civilian sector ,they get involved with parasite mercenaries who don’t think about their country but just the money . But Engola was not that type of person .”
The president also ruled out salary increment for soldiers and recommended the adoption of the National Resistance Army (NRA) doctrine where people worked for patriotism and not for money.
