Govt probes land row

Apr 01, 2007

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has ordered his senior adviser in charge of northern Uganda, Richard Todwong, to investigate allegations that some NRM officials were grabbing land in Acholi.


By Chris Ocowun

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has ordered his senior adviser in charge of northern Uganda, Richard Todwong, to investigate allegations that some NRM officials were grabbing land in Acholi.

Todwong told a press conference in Gulu on Friday: “We are concerned that some individuals in government are grabbing land belonging to the IDPs.

Clans are fighting over land and tribes bordering Acholi are also encroaching on Acholi land. We are going to investigate all these and have the culprits prosecuted.”

He said he had received reports that a senior official of Oyam district had deployed soldiers to guard land that he reportedly grabbed in Koch-Goma sub-county in Gulu district.
Todwong added that

Some NRM cadres who hail from Acholi were among those implicated in the land grabbing.

“I have been given the mandate to investigate the NRM cadres who are acquiring land unlawfully and those people whose land has been grabbed should report to me.

“The Government is not going to tolerate individuals who want to take land for their own selfish motives,” the presidential adviser stated.

He emphasised that they temporarily stopped investors from acquiring land in the region until the land wrangles have been sorted out.

Todwong also warned chief administrative officers in the region against awarding tenders to their relatives.

He said they would also be punished severely for such acts.

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