Joseph Ayolo | Moroto, (Uganda): Gum Arabic farmers in Karamoja region have started regrouping themselves and vow to die while protecting their cooperative land which is being grabbed by few individuals in RISO office, Moroto district Movement chairman Mr Micheal Lokawa.
The land sharing 7 acres located in Singla in Moroto Municipality was bought and registered under Gum Arabic cooperative with the funding from the president office.
However, individuals have decided to conive with some officials in the ministry of lands Moroto regional office to change the land title of the cooperative so that they can partitioned the 7 acre cooperative land to themselves.
The Ankole Times has learnt that this move to grab a cooperative land follows the current high rate of buying plots in Moroto which is now at shs 100million.
Peter Lokut a gum arabic farmer from Kotido district said they will not allow the cooperative land to be taken away by individuals.
“We are still benefiting from Gum Arabic now who’s that person coming to take away our land by trying to advocate for the conciliation of the original title,”he said.
Lokut noted that if government had a hiden agender of collecting guns from the Karimajong for their security agents coming to grab their land, they will not sit and watch.
Mathew Konyen another Gum Arabic farmer demanded for the immediate transfer of the South Karamoja RISO saying of all the RISO’s that have worked in Karamoja none of them has hard land issues compare to the current one.
“Who is he to come and forge meetings with minutes using GISOs with the move to change the land title of our cooperative, he will soon get what he wants,”he said.
According to Gum Arabic members, the UPDF soldiers have been deployed to the cooperative offices which is also housing RISOs office and no member of the cooperative is allowed to move near the cooperative premises.
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