Africa-Press – Uganda. Four councilors in Lira have been arrested on allegations of locking up the district headquarters main gate in protest over non-payment of their allowances.
The suspects who are currently detained at Lira Central police station include Denis Owera, of Itek Sub- County, Bonny Okello, of Ayami Sub County, Isaac Ojok of Agweng Town Council and Moses Odunu of Amach Town council.
The accused were protesting non-payment of their 6-month allowances for monitoring and fueling, amounting to Shs2.5 million (each) when they were arrested on Thursday evening in an operation led by Lira City Police Commander ASP Joseph Bakaleke.
“The four people I have taken are the ones I will entertain there. You can come tomorrow and give us any information that you know about this case,” ASP Bakaleke said as he cautioned the arrestees against taking matters in their own hands.
“You have no reason for closing this facility. Neither do you have the authority to close a public facility because of conflicts that can be manageable,” he added.
ASP Bakaleke had earlier on pleaded with the councilors to open the gate but they didn’t adhere.
Charles Enanga, a councilor for Agali Sub County accused top Lira District authorities, including the Chief Administrative Officer and the district council chairman, of for incompetence
“They only get the money from revenue and the decisions here are made by only the District Executive Committee (DEC), these are people who are not informed, the district is being led by report cards,” he told Journalists on Thursday before his arrest.
“Wrong people are left and the right ones are arrested. We have been talking to these people, we have been requesting them for our pay but they have been adamant,” he protested citing several other failed services in the district.
Lira District chairman Richard Cox Okello Orik appeared to suggest that this has been due to an unprecedented shortfall in local revenue collection which fell below the expected Shs3billion.
“This has affected all the departments in the district, not only council. These people wanted to be given everything irrespective of whether the money was collected or not,” he said.
He added: “Before a councilor is paid a monitoring allowance, she/he must have gone to the field and then presented a report to the clerk to council but none of the [detained] councilors has done that.”
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