Ben Ruberantware, the Lyantonde deputy Resident District Commissioner, is locked up in a land row with Uganda Kolping Society in Hoima.
Both of them claim ownership of a plot of land in Kijungu, a prime area in Hoima municipality.
The plot under contention measures about one-fifth of a hectare and is located on plot 40 on Mandela road.
It all started about two weeks ago when Uganda Kolping Society set out to begin construction on the contested plot.
According to Aloysius Mugasa, the Uganda Kolping society executive director, his workers at the site were arrested and detained at Hoima police station purportedly on the orders of the deputy RDC, who accused them of trespassing on his land.
But Mugasa maintains the plot belongs to the society and accuses the Ruberantware of using his position to grab the society’s land.
He claims that Uganda Kolping Society bought the said plot of land from one Patrick Asiimwe in 2003 and processed a land title in 2004.
Mugasa also reveals that in 2009 Ruberantware fenced off the land in his first attempt to grab it and the society sued him.
The court case was however withdrawn last year after Ruberantware asked for an out of court settlement.
Mugasa wonders how the Deputy RDC has again turned around to claim the plot. He has threatened to sue him again if he doesn’t back off.
//Cue in “I want……….
Cue out : ....kolping.”//
But Ruberantware insists that he is the rightful owner of the land.
The deputy RDC claims he acquired the land through the district land board 23 years ago and accuses Mugasa of conniving with Asiimwe to grab his land under a fogged land title.
He vows not to give up his claim for the land. Uganda Kolping society wants to use the plot of land to build an extension of its Kolping Hotel project.
A comment from the district land board could not be readily ascertained by press time.
