Lockdown: Public officers should lead by example

A deserted street in Kampala during the ongoing lockdown 

By Editor

The incident that allegedly happened in Agago District is very disheartening. Superintendent of
Police Samson Lubega was arrested and locked up at Gulu Police Station for reportedly authorising and attending an in-house party, which was against the President’s Covid-19 lockdown guidelines.

For fear of the spread of Covid-19, President Museveni issued a raft of measures, among which included halting public gatherings in churches, mosques, markets and banning private and public transport country wide.

The Agago DPC allegedly granted permission to a one Francis Oneka, who after returning from the UK on March 17 through Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), then among countries with high incidents of the spread of Covid-19, refused to get into self-isolation and instead disappeared from the district, only to reappear later.

The Agago Resident District Commissioner, Mr Linos Ngompek, reportedly said Lubega attended the party hosted by Oneka and claims the DPC allegedly got drunk.

As a senior police officer, Mr Lubega, who is well-versed with the law, allegedly acted in total disrespect and disregard of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces who issued the guidelines. Yet, the first tenet of the police force in their standing orders is to protect life and property, which the DPC risks offending if he indeed granted permission to host a party during the pandemic.

We have seen how simple lapses globally have led to the worsening of the pandemic, with a number of deaths and infections skyrocketing due to omissions and reluctance on the part of enforcers and those in charge

In Spain, a group of people in Lucero, a working-class neighbourhood in west Madrid, joined a protest to mark International Women’s Day where they gave each other warm hugs, held hands and marched to chants of “down with the patriarchy” and “feminism will win”.

They ventured freely outside and yet coronavirus, which had already killed several hundred in Italy, felt more like someone else’s pain and before long, the virus had spread like a wild fire among them.

Now, this is the danger such lapses could plunge the country into. Accused officials should be investigated and dealt with firmly as a deterrent to others for putting all of us at risk of infection.

We, therefore, commend the authorities for the swift action of arresting and placing the accused officer under investigation for alleged involved in a house party, an activity that was banned.