Councilors of Arua City are deeply divided over proposal to relocate the City offices to former Oluko Sub County headquarters. The proposal was presented by the deputy Mayor and Leader of Government Business Millicent Milly Inzikuru on Monday during the 5th session of the last sitting of Arua City Council following an earlier resolution by the executive.
In the proposal, the council executive argued that the current location of the City headquarters in the central division is a prime area, which could be left for businesses and revenue generation and that former Oluko Sub County headquarters in Ayivu division offers an opportunity for future expansion of the City since it has ample land.
Presenting the motion to the council today Millicent Milly Inzikuru the deputy Mayor Arua City said the decision aims at taking services closer to the remote parts of Oluko (East Ayivu) and also to spur development in the area, which measures 7 acres.
According to Inzikuru, Arua City Council secured 300million shillings from Discretionary Development Equalization Grant-DDGE to be spent in the 2025/26 financial year for construction of Arua City administrative block, but this cannot be done in the former Arua Municipality area, which is been ear marked for the Central Division headquarters.
However, no sooner had the deputy Mayor moved the motion to relocate Arua City headquarters than several councilors rose up to vehemently oppose it citing grounds of preserving the Oluko land for East Ayivu Division headquarters, the said land being encumbered and having issues in Court with some locals and citing a rush for the project instead of pushing to the next new council.
But Moses Adriko the Secretary for Finance and Administration and Joseph Ayaba the Councilor representing Oluko to the City and Secretary for Works and Technical Services said there is need to look far ahead for decongestion the City which is already experiencing congestion in the Central Division.
After over two hours of heated debate, Teddy Yako, the Speaker Arua City Council was forced to defer the matter to the new, incoming council.
The Councilors were also forced to defer approval for usage of shillings 600 million under Adhoc transition fund from Ministry of Finance for construction of and administrative block for the Central division in the ending financial year, on part of the land meant for construction of Arua City Hospital.
Out of 18 Councilors of Arua City Council, at least half lost their seats in the recent elections and several of them did not attend the last council sitting. The outgoing officials include the Mayor Sam Wadri Nyakua-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
