Apaa land conflict: Adjumani leaders promise to fight on
ADJUMANI: Adjumani district leaders have vowed to fight to protect Apaa land also claimed by the Acholi community Amuru district.
Speaking to the journalist on March 2, 2023, the Adjumani district LCV chairman, Ben Anyama claimed government has no interest in resolving the longstanding Apaa land conflict that has left some lives and property lost.
Apaa land turned contentious when Government in 2017 demarcated boundaries between Amuru and Adjumani districts. Apaa village was placed under Adjumani, to the dismay of the Acholi people from Amuru with whom they have inhabited the land for decades. Since then, the attacks have been recurring as Madi community wants the Acholi people pushed out of the land.
Anyama’s comments follow President Museveni’s recent decision to reverse the decision of the cabinet and halted the eviction of illegal settlers in Apaa, days after Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja had issued a three-month ultimatum for the illegal settlers to vacate or face the full wrath of the law.
While addressing a rally in Gulu City on February 20, 2023, Museveni said, “That was a decision of the cabinet in 2019, but before we carried out that decision, when I came to Omoro, the late Oulanyah Jacob proposed that they study it again so I agreed. They formed a committee with Gen. Moses Ali but they did not conclude until Oulanyah died. Now when Oulanyah died, chief justice and other people came. We met, and we decided for me to form a judicial commission of inquiry, so that is the latest government position, there was a delay in forming the commission.”
Anyama is not happy that Museveni has not respected the decision of the cabinet and that of the constitutional court calling for the eviction of the illegal settlers in Apaa.
He said the people of Madi and the West Nile region will resist all possible attempts by anyone to grab their land, adding that government has failed to evict illegal settlers in East Madi Wildlife Reserve.
The chairman of Pakele Sub-county in Adjumani district, Welbourne Kenyi claimed leaders from Acholi Sub-region were working on the expansion of the borders of the Amuru district to grab more of Apaa land.
Kenyi alleged government is not serious on matters of conservation because Apaa contested land sits deep inside East Madi Wildlife Reserve which covers an area of 827 kilometres and was given to Uganda Wildlife Authority [ UWA] by the Adjumani District Council in 1998.
The chairman of Ofua Sub-county also in Adjumani, Robert Dramwi said the Madi people would not accept a judicial commission of inquiry into the Apaa land conflict, claiming that the Chief Justice of Uganda, Alphonse Owiny Dolo, and the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Nobert Mao are interested parties in the conflict.
Dramwi said the Madi people have remained patient even when people from Acholi districts invaded East Madi Wild Life Reserve and Zoka Central Forest Reserve. “We will fight tooth and nail to protect and preserve our two reserves.”
Since the beginning of the Apaa land conflict in 2006, the government through the cabinet made decisions that were squarely reversed, internally sabotaged, or not implemented due to contradicting and varying interests among leaders.
In 2012, the then minister of State for Lands Sarah Opendi who was sent to Apaa to launch the boundary opening exercise was recalled before executing her mission.
The former Minister of Internal Affairs Gen.Aronda Nyakairima who traveled to Apaa alongside the then Minister of State for lands, Daudi Migereko in 2015 abandoned their assignment when somersaulting naked women allegedly mobilised by leaders disrupted the meeting.
The former Minister of Local Government, Tom Butime addressed residents of Apaa in 2017, ordering them to vacate the conservation area or face eviction but the defiant settlers stayed on.
In August 2018, President Museveni addressed a rally in the Apaa market and informed the population that Apaa is in the Adjumani district and advised the encroachers to vacate but the people remained.
Museveni in the same year appointed former Prime Minister Dr. Rukuhana Rugunda to form a committee to investigate the conflict in Apaa and produce a report but with no tangible results.
The Minister of security Gen. Jim Muhwezi in 2021, informed parliament that Apaa is in Adjumani and stated the illegal settlers would be compelled by the government to vacate.
On February 15, 2023, Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja led a team of ministers to Adjumani district where she declared that based on cabinet resolutions of 2019 and 2022, the government has given a three months period for the encroachers in Zoka Central Forest Reserve and East Madi Wildlife Reserve to vacate or faces forceful eviction.
The prime minister said only 394 households were eligible for compensation but 71 of the households who were in Apaa during the national identification registration exercise and participated in the exercise would receive Shs 20 million, 20 bags of cement and iron sheets while those with no proof of identification cards during the same period will receive Shs 2mln.
https://thecooperator.news/museveni-to-meet-acholi-mps-over-apaa-land-conflict/
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