Nakapiripirit district councilors are demanding for the transfer of the Chief Administrative officer Abdullah Awuye whom they accuse of complicity in the diversion of iron sheets from the Prime Minister’s Office that were meant for distribution in Karamoja.
The councilors allege that almost five thousand iron sheets that were meant to help resettle reformed cattle rustlers have never been distributed since December and blame the CAO for this.
On Thursday morning, the aggrieved councilors stormed the office of the CAO also demanding for the accountability of the assets which were disposed of by the district. The protests continued up to Friday which led to the security deployment around the office premises.
The councilors went ahead to claim that Awuye engages in extorting money during staff recruitment, mismanages of relief items meant for reformed cattle rustlers, and committed irregularities during the disposal of the district assets.
Susan Nangiro, the district councilor representing Nakapiripirit town council also doubles as a district deputy speaker, told URN that they demand for the immediate transfer of their CAO for failing to manage his office.
Nangiro said they have laid down their tools until the CAO is transferred because he has promoted corruption that is eating up the district.
According to Nangiro, the district has a lot of issues to be addressed but the CAO has kept dodging the council meetings whenever he is invited.
‘’There is a lot of corruption going on in our district and whenever we invite the CAO to come to the council to explain some of these cases, he does not respond,” Nangiro lamented. “So we feel we cannot work with him any more.’’
Prasede Aleper, another councilor representing Namalu Sub County said that the councilors agreed to dispose of some old grounded assets to get money for settling a financial crisis in the district.
Aleper said the money that was got from the disposed assets is not seen and some vehicles were sold cheaply for as low as three million shillings instead of the 12,000,000 which was agreed upon.
She said the councilors were also shocked to learn that the motor cycles and cars all totaling to 40 raised only 34 million shillings, far less than expected.
Aleper also noted that the district had received about 4,992 iron sheets from the office of the prime minister but to her dismay the beneficiaries have not received the donation since December 2022.
She also revealed that during the recruitment exercise at the district, they cited irregularities which involved exchange of money for jobs while other positions were offered to the relatives.
But Richard Locoto, the Nakapiripirit district speaker disputed the allegations of corruption saying the protest was caused by delays of sitting allowances.
Locoto said that they have tried everything possible to have the councilors paid their allowances for the sessions carried out between January and March 2023 which is mounting for 700,000 shilling each.
‘’It is just the delays of their allowances making them agitated to that extent of attacking the CAO but we are working around the clock to have them cleared,’’ Locoto said.
The resident district commissioner for Nakapiripirit Michael Okurut, when contacted on phone said the protest took him by surprise but vowed to dig more details on the matter.
Okurut promised to give information to our reporter later after their emergency meeting but since then all his known phone numbers have been off, to the time of filling the story.
Our efforts to reach CAO Abdullah Ayuwe were futile as all his known phone numbers were off.
URN has also learnt that the accused officer was locked out of the office on Thursday during the protest but the RDC later returned him on Friday and deployed security forces around the office premises as they wait for a harmonization meeting scheduled for 26 March 2023.
-URN
