Efforts by a section of Ugandans to protest European Union (EU)’s attempt to block the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) have been curtailed by mysterious elements.
This was after the mysterious vanishing of an online platform on which such efforts were coordinated, which was allegedly deleted as a result of influence from yet to be known elements.
A few days ago, a section of Ugandan youth chiefly from Western Uganda under their umbrella body Western Youth Forum (WYF) launched an online platform, a Twitter account dubbed @eacop support, on which they canvassed signatures to condemn EU Parliament’s resolution of trying to block the joint oil pipeline project.
By Monday September 19th, the petition had garnered about 7000 signatures, in a span of just three days, with most influential politicians such as ministers appending their signatures on it, including Uganda’s Attorney General Mr. Kiryowa Kiwanuka.
The alarm raised in Uganda by EU legislators’ vote to block the EACOP citing environmental concerns was unimaginable.
The move attracted harsh condemnation from the Ugandan ordinary citizenry and influential figures, including the deputy speaker of Parliament Hon. Thomas Tayebwa and President Yoweri Museveni.
Unfortunately it has been confirmed today by highly placed sources that this Twitter account on which signatures meant to petition the EU against meddling in Ugandan affairs has been permanently deleted and is inaccessible to any citizen in Uganda, rendering the entire process a failure.
It remains to be seen if a new Twitter account will be created by these unrelenting youths, who are keen on curtailing European imperialism and neo colonialism.
Ali Ssekatawa, a legal representative for Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) is among the high profile citizens in Uganda to confirm this sad development, and through his Twitter handle, he said the country’s archrivals take a lion’s share in the blame for the disappearance of this Twitter handle.
He explained that there is a highly likelihood that such malicious elements secretly petitioned global Twitter handlers, and the end result was to delete this handle, since this social networking platform itself is influenced by foreign powers, some of which have never wished anything good for Uganda.
He noted that against all odds, the oil pipeline construction must go ahead, owing to the fact that Uganda is a sovereign country, with the capability to define the course of its own affairs without the interference of a foreign power.
“The EU resolution to stop the construction of pipeline is not binding on all nations in the world, Europe, European Commission or even a sovereign country like Uganda, or Tanzania. So, the progression of our project will go ahead, and even rigs that are needed to extract oil have reached Mombasa, and efforts are underway to bring them to Hoima and Buliisa such that they start operating,” remarked Ssekatawa in a defiant tone.
He noted that such resolutions are emblematic of their own thinking, and that governments of Uganda and Tanzania through their foreign embassies are trying to look into the motion, but it will not stop Kampala and Dodoma from going ahead with the project.
It should of course be remembered that on September 14th, the EU Parliament passed a motion asking Uganda and her neighbor Tanzania to immediately halt works on the joint pipeline project, which was termed by experts as economic racism and neo-colonial tendencies by European states.
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