A FOOL & HIS GUN! Secrets of ‘violent’ Amb.Ogwang who drew a pistol at elders

The phrase “only a fool trusts his life to a weapon” means that trusting one’s life to a weapon is something only a fool would do.

In the Bible, Proverbs defines a fool as someone who denies God’s authority, righteousness, and requirements. A fool also denies their own moral makeup and the authority that all humans should live under.

And Uganda’s deputy envoy to Khartoum properly qualifies being branded a fool, according to observers following Sunday events when he drew a pistol on elders in his home town, Lira.

Following this incident many have since exonerated his ex-wife Miriam Pheona Otengo who some thought she was making up stories to facilitate her divorce with him. She had accused him of battery to such an extent that she had to run to the US authorities who in turn sent him packing from the US.

In the case of his wife, he trusted the ‘stick and kicks’ and for the case of Lango elders, he trusted his pistol—what a fool.

PISTOL INCIDENT

Sources say it all started when cultural leaders, MPs, Resident District Commissioners and other stakeholders from the Lango sub-region met at Lango Cultural Centre in preparation for the Ateker Festival set for November, 26.

Ogwang, who is currently serving as the charge de affairs in Khartoum stormed the meeting he had not been invited to, prompting dissenting voices from the attendees.

With these voices growing, cultural leaders in the meeting also became furious and sensing this, the ambassador started brandishing his pistol.

He was grabbed by police officers who wrestled him to the ground before disarming him.

He was consequently arrested and taken to Lira Central Police Station for questioning. Police are investigating the matter.

Last month, the High Court in Lira stopped Ogwang from masquerading as a rival Lango paramount chief.

This was after he participated in an election for the position of Lango Paramount Chief.

WIFE BEATER

In January 2018, the international scene was covered by stories of a Ugandan Diplomat who had allegedly battered his wife to a pulp. The incident had happened at the Diplomat’s Residence in Washington DC, United States of America. At the same time, Uganda was battling cases of her Former envoys to the United Nations and Canada who had also battered their women. One thing is clear, for every Diplomatic gender based violence, it had to relate to the issue of a side woman, and for Ambassador Dickson Ogwang, it took no exceptions. In a television interview, Ogwang’s wife Miriam Pheona Otengo shocked the nation when she revealed series of sexual violence that had rocked her marriage with Ogwang, accusing the later of using her as a sex toy. With that being the first time the embattled woman was coming public with the Washington ordeal, she said the Diplomat had battered her for trying to question his extra-marital affair and phone romances with a lady he had only saved as Office of the Speaker Uganda but was later identified as Ranny Ismael who is currently his official wife.

Medical Reports from Medstar seen by this publication revealed that the estranged wife was checked in by police officers with cases of broken orbital bone, shattered face among others. Further documentations this publication obtained exclusively reported that a case of first and second degree assault and false imprisonment was preferred against Amb. Ogwang in Maryland, United States. According to online information provided by the Maryland state court, Ogwang’s cases are active and that an international warrant of arrest has since been issued against him to face charges related to abuse and other traffic offenses committed while in the United States. So, he can’t step there.

Ogwang would later be posted at the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Office heading the Diaspora desk. Activists had raised questions suggesting that the government ought to have arrested Ogwang first thing when he arrived, and not the glorious treatment he was awarded.

Indeed at the pivot of a social media bickering between the two couples, in which Ms. Otengo accused Ogwang of blocking her Visas, Foreign Affairs Minister Oryem shocked the nation when in defense of Ambassador Ogwang said the latter is a seasoned Diplomat with an unmatched integrity, a statement which heavily contradicted his 2018 position when he termed Ogwang’s behavior as barbaric and extremely undiplomatic adding that disciplinary measures would be preferred against the Diplomat.

With the help of current Speaker of Parliament Anita Among, Ogwang went and asked for forgiveness from President Museveni.

A story is told that as soon as Ogwang saw the President, he fell prostrate on the red carpet and Museveni asked him , ‘you are a man who beats his wife?.

The envoy reportedly pleaded, saying it was a mistake but that the subsequent sanction meant that his sick child who was surviving on expensive medical care in the USA, would die if he did not return to the USA.

Because he talked about his sick child, an irate President now cooled down and started asking how the child was fairing.

For the sake of his sick child, his wife Miriam Otengo was deployed to the Ugandan High Commission in the UK as a Counsellor for the kid to get specialised medical care.

SECRETLY SENT TO KHARTOUM

Ogwang was later redeployed to Khartoum-Sudan as deputy ambassador—although he spends most of his time here in Kampala the reason he was in Lira on Sunday to disturb the peace of elders.

However sources say this was behind the back of the President who was still angry with him.

Sources further revealed that the choice of Khartoum by Foreign Affairs officials was tactical, given that the Capital is perceived as deeply concerned with her internal instability and power issues and was not interested in carrying out a background check on Amb. Ogwang.

Another view point revealed is that Sudan is Generally perceived as a country that does not respect women’s rights, especially after a revolution led by women, the state is seen as very opposed to issues of women and thus a better fit for Amb. Ogwang who after being declared Persona non Grata by the Washington Government, and the consequent arrest warrant against him cannot be deployed in and European or Western countries and others with extradition agreements with the United States.

In his various addresses, the President has always referred to men beating up women as pigs.

Amb. Ogwang, according to multiple sources has a track record of women abuse, with atleast four women he has since had children with running due to domestic violence with the latest being Miriam Otengo.

Will Ranny Ismael follow suit? Only time will tell.

 A source at Uganda’s Embassy in Washington DC noted that for the period while Ogwang was charge d’affaires After Amb. Wonekh had left, he conducted himself in a manner unfit for a Diplomat, and in several cases female embassy visitors left in discord because the ambassador loved taking pictures when holding their waist.

There have been multiple cases of spouses of diplomats coming out to voice the various abuses they were facing in the hands of their Diplomatic husbands. These concerns often disappeared into oblivion with either the alleged perpetuators being posted or absorbed within the ministry.