Acholi leaders on palm oil visit named traitors

 

 President Museveni addresses a section of leaders while on a tour of the proposed land for sugar growing in Amuru District recently

IN SUMMARY

 State House invited the leaders but opponents see it as an attempt to lure them to accept a sugar plantation in Acholi.

 

A group of leaders from Acholi sub-region have been branded ‘traitors’ after accepting a State House invitation to tour palm oil projects in Kalangala District.

Representatives of those opposed to the tour suspect it is another ploy to grab Acholi land by pressing the leaders to okay the establishment of a sugar plantation in Amuru District.

The Daily Monitor has learnt that an email from State House was sent to the former Agago MP, Prof. Ogenga Latigo, asking him to mobilise leaders for the trip.

The email invited all district planning officers, Resident District Commissioners, district chairpersons and individuals described as female and male ‘district leaders’ from Acholi for the tour which began on Wednesday.

They are later expected to proceed to Kakira sugar plantations owned by the Madhvani Group before meeting the President.

Asked whether he was invited for the tour, Mr Gilbert Olanya, the MP for Kilak County in Amuru, said: “It is unfortunate that I was not informed.”

Mr Olanya said he was in his constituency at the time, adding that residents were peaceful without disturbances from land grabbers.
Mr Olanya is one of the MPs who have oppossed the plans to set up the factory.

But Prof. Latigo, who acknowledged receipt of the email, said he had asked Mr William Nokrach, the MP for persons with disabilities, to invite all MPs from Acholi to join the tour.

When contacted for comment, Mr Nokrach said he was in a meeting before he switched off his phone.

Prof. Latigo, also the former Leader of Opposition in Parliament, urged other leaders to stop “playing politics with people’s lives”.
He said only 17 per cent of Acholi land is utilised while a big number of locals in the region remain unemployed.

Prof. Latigo said he supported the sugar project even when he was in Parliament because he thought it would eradicate poverty.

PLAN DIVIDES ACHOLI

Madhvani Group wants more than 40,000 hectares of land in Amuru to set up a plantation but some Acholi leaders like Uganda Peoples Congress president Olara Otunnu, accuse the company of being “a front for land grabbers in the government.” They urged residents to resist the effort although a section insists they must be given an opportunity to enter into an equitable investment relationship with the Madhvanis. A court process is still underway in the same matter.