The former Gulu Deputy Resident City Commissioner, Francis Rwotlonyo is yet to return an official government vehicle he has been using, close to two weeks after being dropped.
President, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni dropped Rwotlonyo in the latest reshuffle of Resident District commissioners, Resident City commissioners and their deputies last month.
He was replaced with Peter Banya, the former Jinja Deputy Resident City Commissioner. Rwotlonyo was expected to hand over his office and all government assets to the District Internal Officers-DISO by March 31. But Sources in the RCC’s office, who didn’t want to be named in order to freely speak, said Rwotloyo didn’t heed the directive.
“He left the office Key with the Secretary and hasn’t officially handed over his vehicle to us. The new Deputy was here over the weekend but he (Rwotlonyo) wasn’t there,”one of the sources told us in an interview on Tuesday. He added that Rwotlonyo also skipped the official handover of office to the new Resident City Commissioner last week for unclear reasons.
The source said Rwotlonyo has until Monday next week to return the vehicle, a Mitsubishi double cabin pick-up, and hand over his office formally to either the DISO or his successor. Banya confirmed to journalists in an interview that no handover took place despite reaching the ground to take over the office.
Banya says he has spoken with Rwotlonyo on the matter, adding that he is willing to return the vehicle after the burial of former Speaker of Parliament, Jacob L’Okori Oulanyah on Friday this week.
“We had a chat and he told me that he is not resisting returning the vehicle. He said he wanted to stay with the vehicle until he buries Oulanyah in Omoro because he doesn’t have means of transport,” said Banya.
Rwotlonyo didn’t deny holding on to the vehicle when contacted by our reporter. He, however, claimed that he was still repairing it before officially returning it to the DISO.
“When I received the vehicle, it had no tires and many others things were not there. So I had fixed a lot of things. I told the new Deputy RCC that I will hand over the vehicle when it’s properly fixed and I believe by Friday, the work would have been completed,” he said.
He added that the matter has been publicized in the interests of those fighting him.
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