A police investigation is underway after some members of the Bukwo-based Nyalit Cooperative Society raised a red flag over alleged embezzlement of the cooperative’s funds.
The said money, UGX 69 million, is a compensation from the Uganda National Roads Authority – UNRA for the demolition of the Nyalit Cooperative building in Bukwo district, Sipi subregion. The building in question had been constructed within a road reserve and had been in existence for 3 years.
In 2018, members of the cooperative reached an agreement with officials from UNRA to have the road reserve area (in which the cooperative’s building was housed) freed, in exchange for compensation of UGX 69 million.
A source who asked not to be named in this story for security reasons confirmed to theCooperator magazine that the UGX 69 million was released by UNRA in August 2019.
The source alleges that the money was misused by four of the cooperative’s leaders: the Chairman – Mr. Wilson Cheptoek, his vice-chairman, the treasurer, and the secretary, whom members accuse of selfishly sharing the 69 million shillings without their consent and later claiming that UNRA was yet to effect the payment.
“I called the police because we (members) were getting sick and tired of being treated like fools by our own leaders. We cannot allow anyone to ruin our cooperative which has taken years to build,” the source said.
At the time our reporter visited the offices of the cooperative on 22 October 2019, the cooperative was close to being non-operational owing to the ongoing dispute. Nyalit Cooperative is now renting office space in Bukwo town Council, after the demolition of their previous premises.
The Sipi subregion Police Spokesperson, Mr. Rogers Taitika confirmed that in the last few days, at least four suspects have been apprehended to help in the ongoing investigations.
“It’s true we have started the investigation into this matter and there is some progress we are making but of course I cannot reveal much at the moment since we are still gathering information,” Taitika said, at his Kapchorwa town office.
Asked to detail the current arrests, the police regional spokesman remained adamant reasoning that revealing such information would jeopardize their ongoing investigation.
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