The conflict over 210 acres of land in Tororo Town Council has been resolved with the owner of the land, Mzee Osuna Otwani, agreeing to sale of his land.
In July this year, Mzee Otwani through his MP, Geoffrey Ekanya, accused State Minister for Micro Finance, General Salim Saleh together with Great Lakes CFS Limited of forcing him to sell the land at less its value. Saleh's aide, Capt. Juma Seiko, however said his boss neither had interest in the land nor any knowledge of its sale.
Seiko said an unnamed foreign investor was interested in purchasing the land for a large scale venture that would benefit the people of Tororo. He denied that Mzee Otwani was ever coerced into selling his land.
Uganda Radio Network has established that Mzee Otwani changed his mind about the sale of the land and last month agreed to be paid 400 million shillings for the entire 210 acres.
On August 8th in the company of his wife, Zula Nabulo, Otwani signed a deal for the sale of the land.
Two cheques of 5 million shillings each were paid to Otwani in early August, and a third cheque of 30 million shillings was given to him on August 28th.
Documents that Uganda Radio Network has seen indicate that all the cheques were cashed in Crane Bank. Other documents indicate that Mzee Otwani took additional cash drafts on September 4th in four different installments; one of 60 million and the other three of 100 million shillings each, to complete his payment.
Great Lakes CFS is now fencing off the land in preparation for the proposed 75 million dollar investment to establish the largest container freight station in Uganda, which will be located near the Malaba border post.
