Only District and City Executive Committee members in the Acholi Sub-region will attend an emergency Joint sub-regional Council meeting to honor former Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah over financial constraints.
The joint council meeting to be held on Thursday in Lalogi Sub-county in Omoro District will also be attended by members of the local council governments from Lango, and West Nile Sub-regions.
District Chairpersons from the region under their umbrella body, the Joint Acholi Sub-Region Leaders Forum during a meeting last month unanimously resolved to hold a special council session to honor Oulanyah.
Alfred Okwonga, the Gulu City Mayor, who is also the coordinator of the Joint Acholi Leaders forum says that the meeting was supposed to be attended by all councilors, but the plans have been affected at the last minute due to limited finances.
Okwonga says they have now restricted only District executive committee members to attend the full council meeting to enable easy facilitation from respective districts. He notes that they had initially hoped that the government will provide funds for the council session.
According to Okwonga, the local organizing committee for the burial of Oulanyah had sought about 72 Million Shillings to facilitate the emergency council meeting.
Christopher Obol Arwai, Kitgum LCV Chairperson says they will only facilitate the district executive committee members to attend the joint council meeting.
Arwai however notes that they were yet to sit down in a meeting with the Chief Administrative Officer to draw a budget for facilitating the members.
“We haven’t yet received information about the budget cut from the government on facilitating the joint council meeting. In any case, there is no budget, we shall sit as a district to see how to fund our members”, Arwai said.
Gulu LCV Chairperson Christopher Opiyo Ateker castigated the government for its failure to fund what had already been budgeted to pay respect for the former speaker.
Ateker says despite no funds from the government, as a district, they will mobilize funds to ensure their members are facilitated to participate in the joint full Council meeting.
Seven members of the District and City executive committees are expected to be drawn from each of the respective administrative units from Acholi for the joint council meeting.
Oulanyah’s body is expected to be flown to his former Constituency in Omoro County after a State Funeral at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds on Wednesday. He will be buried at his ancestral home village of Ayom Lony in Lalogi Sub-county on Friday.
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