By KT Reporter
The State House Anticorruption Unit, in collaboration with the police, has arrested Lawrence Okello, the proprietor of Oil Energy Uganda Ltd, for illegally constructing a fuel station on a gazetted wetland in Gulu City. Okello was apprehended on Wednesday in Green Valley cell, Bardege-Layibi Division, where he had resumed construction activities on Plot 31, Gulu Avenue. The site encroaches on the Pece Stream wetland, a protected area.
Miriam Natasha, the Spokesperson of the State House Anti-Corruption Unit confirmed the arrest of Okello concerning the illegal construction works on the wetland but offered no further details. The construction, which had been on halt since March this year following protests from leaders and environmentalists resumed on Tuesday.
This came barely a week after Gulu City Council gave the green light to the businessman to resume work in the wetland in a resolution that has since sparked outrage from both political and environmental activists. The resolution was made after councilors seconded a motion moved by Andrew Ogwetta Otto, the LC V Councilor representing Pece-Laroo North during a council sitting held on November 28 at Gulu City Council Hall.
Ogwetta’s motion sought leave of the council to discuss and resolve the relationship between the city council and Oil Energy Uganda Ltd along with other ongoing civil court cases at hand. Both Oil Energy Uganda Ltd and Gulu City Council are battling more than one case in court following suits and countersuits from each party over the establishment of the fuel station on the wetland.
Ogwetta reasoned in the council last week that the city council should withdraw any civil legal proceedings pending before the court as a party to suit with Oil Energy Uganda Ltd and instead explore other forms of alternative dispute resolution. According to him, the city council is already choked with debts and owes more than 200 million Shillings in court costs arising from cases it lost in the past.
“If the matter between Council and Oil Energy is not resolved, then we shall have to sacrifice payment of road gangs, repairing streetlights, travels inland and abroad which are all serviced by our local revenue,” he prayed. But Bardege-Layibi Division Mayor Patrick Oola Lumumba expressed dissatisfaction with the actions of the councilors describing it as a big betrayal in their fights to conserve the environment.
He accused the councilors of taking sides with the businessman after allegedly receiving bribes adding that as Bardege-Layibi Division leaders, they will press on with the fights to ensure the development of the wetland is stopped. Morris Odong, the LCV Councilor for Pece-Laroo South also the chairperson of the Building Control Committee denied the allegations of receiving bribes.
He instead noted that they were surprised that even after the council resolved to advise the developer to meet certain requirements, he chose to resume construction work. According to Odong, the businessman’s development plans were deferred more than two times by the committee for lacking basic requirements among them the Environmental Impact Assessment report from the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA).
Gulu Resident City Commissioner Ambrose Onoria says the construction works have since been halted adding that the developer was whisked away to Kampala by the State House Anti-Corruption Unit. He says the construction equipment found on the site has also been taken for safe custody by the police pending resolution of the matter.
Onoria however cited double standards on the part of the Gulu District Land Board who sold the land to the developer well knowing it’s a wetland and cautioned against such actions.
This is not the first time Lawrence Okello has been arrested over the illegal destruction of the environment. In December last year, Okello was charged with five counts of fraudulent procurement of certificate of title, altering, moving, destroying, and defacing boundary marks of a forest, clearing and occupying a forest reserve for commercial and industrial purposes in Lira City. He was consequently remanded to Lira Main Prisons.
His Company, Oil Energy Uganda Ltd also faces charges by NEMA of failing to comply with the conditions stipulated on the certificate of approval of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment No NEMA/ESIA 13705 contrary to section 157 (f) and (ii) of the national environment Act Cap 181.
The charge sheet, dated September 12, 2024, and seen by Uganda Radio Network, indicates that Oil Energy Uganda Ltd was found on March 25, 2024, constructing a fuel station at Green Valley Village, Kanyagoga Parish, Bardege-Layibi Division, Gulu City, in total disregard of Condition No. 4.3 of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Certificate (No. NEMA ESIA/13705). The company failed to obtain approval from the Gulu City Council Authority before commencing the project-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
