The new district council of Arua has started touring the two proposed sites for the establishment of the headquarters of Arua ahead of the visit by the ministry of local government officials.

The two sites which have attracted a heated exchange are Arivu Sub County headquarters that was proposed by the previous district council under greater Arua and Odumi, in Vurra county that was proposed by the former District Executive Committee(DEC).

The tour which took place on Friday led by Alfred Okuonzi, the LC5 Chairman Arua attracted some chaotic scenes including blockage of councilors from conducting the assessment by some ‘landlords’ at Odumi.

Alfred Okuonzi, LC5 Arua

At Arivu sub county headquarters where the leadership presented three different sites including the 9.5 acres the sub-county sits on, the 36 acres formerly used by BAT and another 4 acres offered by the landlords, the youth mobilized in large numbers to welcome the district council and demanded that their area be immediately pronounced as the preferred site for the relocation of the district headquarters.

However, it was a different scenario in Odumi where over 40 acres of land for the county headquarter was said to be surrendered by the leadership of Vurra subcounty to relocate the district.

A group of people who claimed to be landlords for parts of the land from the two villages mobilized the community and blocked the planned tour of the area citing a court injunction stopping any activity on the said land until the matter is fully determined.

This prompted the district Chairperson Arua, Alfred Okuonzi to defer the assessment exercise at Odumi to another date.

Alfred Okuonzi, district chairman Arua explained that the major purpose of the visit in the two contentious areas was to ascertain and get acquainted with the right information regarding the land size of the respective location.

“Our coming here is a fact-finding mission so that, when the permanent secretary from the ministry of local government  who is preparing to visit the district asks the council, we shall be in position to give him the right information but I have nothing to do with  deciding the  location for the district headquarters”, Okuonzi said

Comunity members escorting the district council members after they were blocked from accessing the land

Okuonzi appealed for calm and peaceful resolution so that the issue does not plunge the people in the district into sharp division.

Deogratious Asea, a technical person working with Arivu sub-county while giving a brief history on how a decision on Arivu sub-county headquarters was reached at argued that, location of a district headquarter should not only be based on the availability of land but also other factors like centrality for effective service delivery, social amenities like health facilities, proximity to major roads among others.

Jacob Anguajibi, the LC3 Chairperson of Ajia whose sub-county is at the extreme end bordering Madi Okollo district wonders how his people will access services if the district headquarter is located in Odumi Vurra sub-county.

“For me I think, if the essence is to get services closer to the people, Arivu would be more central to all of us besides the proposed site at Odumi is close to the international border with DR Congo and security-wise I do not think that it will be a better option and in Arivu already there is a highway going to Kampala that is lacking in Vurra”, Anguajibi said

Though the tour in Arivu went on successfully, the team met a lot of resistance from Odumi where a section of members of the community mounted a roadblock at the entrance leading to the land.

Simon Adule 67 years, who produced a court injunction letter seen by New Vision stopping any activity on the land insists that 7 acres of the land in question belongs to him as their grandparents were forcefully evicted from the land by the traditional chief at that time.

“We shall not allow anyone to construct district headquarters on our land when they have sidelined us in all the activities regarding this land, they should have liaised with us so that we find a way forward but since they refused to let the court decide the ownership of the land first”, Adule said.

Likewise, Jackson Obitre from Tivu village says, he has twice won cases against the sub-county regarding his 4 acres of the land but the officials through their lawyers continued to forge documents to move to higher courts with the aim of pushing him out of the land for which he has a lease document.

“I dare the sub-county to produce a document for this land if they said the land belongs to the sub-county”

Dawin Dawa, the former district communication officer Arua who claimed to have lived on the disputed land clarified that the land was a colonial headquarter since 1932 and no one should claim ownership of the land.