Dokolo District Local Government vehicle impounded by the bailiffs (Photo by Solomon Okabo)
Court bailiffs have impounded a double-cabin pickup truck belonging to Dokolo district local government. The vehicle registration number LG 0010-028 was impounded on Monday from Dokolo town by a team of bailiffs from Kampala to recover a fine of Shillings 51 million imposed by the court on the district after losing a case to Patrick Richard Obot, the former Agwata Primary School Management Committee chairperson.
Obot ran to Lira High Court in 2019 through his lawyers John Patrick Adar of Adar and Company Advocates challenging the criteria used by Dokolo District Local Government to remove him and eleven members of the Board from office.
Court documents show that Dokolo officials unlawfully removed Obot and the eleven members of the board and subsequently replaced them with new members without substantial powers over the same.
On May 1st, 2021, Justice Mackey Hajiji ruled in favor of the applicant and ordered the district officials to compensate each of them Shillings 5 million and pay Shillings 11 million as costs of the suit.
Dokolo District Local Government agreed to settle the court fine and attached a vehicle belonging to Dokolo District Water Department. Dokolo has since failed to pay the legal costs, resulting in the order to seize its vehicle for auction. After seizing the vehicle, the bailiffs handed it over to Lira High Court.
Richard Patrick Obot wants Dokolo District Local Government to pay him the court fines and reinstate his board at the school.
Dokolo LC V chairperson, James Otto Apili says attempts are being made to ensure the complainants are paid. He rallied the public to consider negotiations as a good measure of settling disputes.
The incident comes barely two years after the court bailiffs impounded another vehicle belonging to the district over the same issue. In 2019, the bailiffs confiscated the vehicle of the former LC V Chairperson Frederick Odongo “aka” Kungfu Master after the Lira High Court awarded the former Senior Personnel Officer Alex Lolo Abura Shillings 400 million for unlawful dismissal from work.
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