The State House Anti – Corruption Unit has arrested two officials of Lira district over the alleged fraudulent sale of land belonging to the district.
Pabious Otike, the District Natural Resources Officer and Joel Ogwang, the Zonal Cartographer were arrested on Wednesday evening for not only forging land tittles but also selling the land to individuals.
The land in question is plot 3 to 5 located along Ben Emor Road which is part of the Ireda Estate that is now registered under the names of Rebecca Atoo. It is alleged that Atoo acquired the land and its tittle in 2019 having been assisted by the two suspects.
The remaining piece has also been illegally subdivided on both sides of an illegal road created thus diving it into plots from 1 to 23 on one side and 2 to 18 on the other side.
A source from the Anti- corruption unit who spoke on condition of anonymity says their investigations revealed that the duo surveyed the land at Ireda Estate in order to process its title for the district but intentionally left out a big piece which they are selling to interested individuals.
“This is one of the plots that was sold among the many plots that were subdivided out of the land that they left out intentionally when they surveyed to create the district title. The suspects processed the documents through the area land committee and the district land board but they were all forged because the area land committee and the district land board equally denied processing such documents for Atoo Rebecca,” added the source.
The source further explained that there is a huge piece of land that was left out on that Ireda Estate by these people that is along Ben Emor road and another piece of land where the MTN mast is located.
In March 2021, Otike together with three other districts were interdicted for allegedly selling a piece of land located at Plot 14 Church road to Peter Okodo, a businessman and proprietor of Jerusalem School of Nursing and Midwifery who has constructed and is currently operating Galilee Pharmacy on the land.
Investigations into the sale of plot 14 Church Road are still on going.
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