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Senior leaders, elders and opinion leaders in Acholi-land have pleaded with chief justice Alfonse Dollo to use his position and protect the land of fallen IGP Erinayo Oryema who was murdered by Idi Amin.
Oryema’s grandchildren who live mostly in London are the ones who have been trying to fight to defend their great grandparent’s land but it hasn’t been easy because of corruption and inefficiencies of the police and the Ugandan court system.
The grandchildren and surviving children have been battling their own auntie Gertrude Oryema Auma whose senile state has been exploited by self seekers to grab part of Oryema’s land mainly in Purongo sub county.
Having been manipulated, Auma recently signed away 3,700 acres of Oryema’s land (stretching to over 6000 acres in total).
The 3,700 acres was sold off to a business lady Beatrice Achola who hails from Kitgum. Her brother is Roy who recently got married to Dollo’s daughter. This is one reason why there is hope that once Dollo gets involved, sanity can return to Oryema family land.
Achola last May got a ruling from Gulu High Court’s Phillip Odoki which curiously indicated that she was free to deal with the land the way she wants allegedly because the Oryema family members had failed to produce any convincing evidence against her claim to the same.
The Odoki judgment came out on 13th May more than a week after Beatrice Achola had sold the suit land to a Ukrainian investor by the names of Maxin Schezchuk.
The Ukrainian has now got up to 3,700 of land from what Oryema’s family claims to be their bigger land. The Ukrainian is using the land to carry out large scale maize growing in Nwoya for exportation back home in Eastern Europe.
And the aggrieved Oryema family members have reported so far 40 criminal cases against him but the highly connected Ukrainian has refused to report himself to Police.
There are summons for him to appear at Purongo police which he has defied saying there is nothing that can be done to him.
Having realised that the 3,700 acres he was given is less than the money he paid to Beatrice Achola, the Ukrainian has resorted to expanding into the remainder of the Oryema family land and this has created panic among family members in London that the fallen IGP’s grave may be excavated soon since area Police seems too scared to stand up to the Ukrainian investor.
The Oryema grandchildren have also sent in a notice of intention to sue but the Ukrainian remains unmoved and convinced that every Police and Judicial officer in Uganda has a price.
It’s against all this background that Dollo is being asked by Acholi elders and Oryema family members to get involved in his capacity as an elder and chief justice of Uganda to ensure Oryema’s family land is saved.
The other reason is that Dollo knows the story of Oryema family land more than anyone else because he was a lawyer to one of the feuding family members from as early as 1982.
As a young lawyer, he used to work with the law firm of Obolo Ochola who used to be the Oryema family lawyer for many years.
Family members want Dollo to closely work with former law society president Francis Gimara to stand up in defence of late Oryema’s land because they both know a lot about the deceased IGP’s estate.
Dollo is also being called upon to inquire into the conduct of Nwoya area Police bosses led by DPC Richard Ananya who comes from West Nile and OC CID Opio.
Dollo is also being asked to inquire into why the two powerful Police officers named above aren’t doing anything to tame balaalo pastoralists activities and charcoal burning in the area which he used to publicly go quarrelling about.
Dollo is also being asked to use his office and connections to demand that Museveni’s government explains why armed guards and tractors for the Ukrainian continue to encroach on Oryema’s land without the Nwoya area Police bosses being able to do anything even when they see that the foreign IGP’s grave is about to be destroyed to pave way for maize growing activities being put in place by the insensitive Ukrainian.
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