Dissatisfied Arua City Wananchi Oppose Maracha County MP Oguzu's Barifa Ecotourism Project, They Want the Forest Degazatted.

BY ANDREW COHEN AMVESI.

ARUA. The locals in Arua city have come out again to contest the Barifa central forest reserve (CFR) development plan submitted to the city authority by Maracha County MP, Denis Lee Oguzu.

While carrying placards with different inscriptions at the former Arua Hill Division offices on Monday, the locals argued that the plan Oguzu submitted is not eco-friendly at all and as a result, they want the process the MP used to secure a 2-year license from the National Forest Authority (NFA) for eco-tourism development in Barifa cancelled and the whole forest degazetted for anybody to acquire land in the area.

“One person can’t take 40 acres. The municipality planned and the city is upholding that plan that Barifa is degazetted and every capable member of our community is given an opportunity on application to acquire land there, not that one person grabbing 40 acres, no!” Caleb Titia Kamure, one of the concerned locals said.

“The physical planning committee of Arua city rejected Oguzu’s application. He did apply but he is not applying the proper way. What is happening today, I’m told there is a lot of pressure being put on the city mayor and all the planners, they have been summoned to Kampala – right, left, and forth, that nonsense should stop,” Kamure fumed.

He said Oguzu should instead acquire permission to develop the forest in a normal way as any other person does.

“Let him follow the law and we all follow the law so that those who apply will get land there and Barifa is not running away,” Kamure stressed.

Similarly, Caesar Draecabo Trinity, the Arua City Development Forum (ACDF) President said the relentless appetite of those of MP Oguzu and some people who have remained veiled is no longer breaking news to the people of West Nile.

“The talk about Barifa is not a tribal thing. The insinuation brought by some of those who are behind the takeover and grabbing of Barifa in terms of tribal lines is very wrong. Barifa is a West Nile heritage site. Most of us who have studied in the schools of West Nile, have part of our stories being told, partly written on those soils of Barifa, and therefore, no one can think that it is time for us to fold our hands when individuals want to share the heritage,” Draecabo said.

He said the ACDF has followed the discussion about Barifa, promising that they won’t stand against development.

“But it has become very clear that technically, the process of giving a portion of Barifa forest to MP Oguzu and those who are veiled and behind him is not in order, and therefore, we agree with anybody who would wish to challenge the process. We do not think it is time for an individual to stand up to take 40 acres of the kind of land we have much of our stories attached to. If they use the right procedure well and well but for this case, they haven’t,” Draecabo said.

“First of all, the National Physical Planning Board (NPPB) is running a double standard, but they should be aware that we have the knowledge and we have a copy of the moratorium which was written on 17th of August last year that instructed strongly about the open space use that is in Uganda and we are aware that it is very clear that their mandate is drawn from the Constitution; the National Planning Act 2010 as amended and they clearly put that all local governments should suspend approval of development requests on public open space until further notice,” Draecabo added.

He, however, wondered why NPPB went against its directive to pressurize the Arua City authority to allow Oguzu to build a 5-Star hotel and a swimming pool with a capacity of 2,000 people among other facilities which are not eco-friendly in Barifa forest.

But when contacted earlier on over similar concerns, Oguzu said: “I want to appeal to the people of Arua that the central forest reserve is a government reserve which is being held in trust for the people of Uganda and I’m one of these Ugandans. If some people think they are more important and have more rights than others, I think it is very wrong.”

According to Oguzu, the people who have dragged his name into the fraud allegations perhaps were not aware that in the middle of 2017, NFA made a public call for people to come up with proposals for the development of eco-tourism in different central forest reserves in the country.

“I, just like one of the citizens, applied and on the uniqueness of our ideas and the strength of our proposal, we were offered a license. But before the license was offered, they gave us a precondition to the offer that we were supposed to do designs, demonstrate our financial capability, and also undertake environmental impact assessment and that is what we have been doing in the last two years to make sure we meet NFA conditions before we would start to execute the project fully,” Oguzu emphasized.

The MP said it is in this regard that he was able to move to the City for such approval.

Oguzu stressed that he was rather dismayed by individuals who, without the right information, decided to make allegations that have caused him irreparable damage without substantiation.

“I would ordinarily expect that these individuals would go to NFA to seek the truth, go to Arua city and also establish what the exact situation is. Without doing that, they decided to write and alleged that Oguzu has got a lease, he is now processing the documents of the lease. Then I wondered how a lease can be processed without any application, without the involvement of the area land committee, the physical planning committee, and the city land board?” Oguzu said.

This is the third time the locals in Arua City are protesting against Oguzu’s intended dAuthorment in Barifa CFR.

Source; https://redpepper.co.ug/locals-contest-mp-oguzus-barifa-plan-want-forest-degazetted/125652/