Oil giant Total energy one of the companies implementing the East African Crude Oil Pipeline Project (ECOP) has promised the phone affected persons will be given annual project uplift to deal with the issue of delayed compensation.
This was revealed during a meeting organised by Global Rights Alert to help the affected persons have an interface with the oil companies undertaking the project and the Petroleum Authority of Uganda.
In regards to the delayed compensation in Kikuube and Hoima Districts, the affected persons led by their chairperson Nelson Tibemanya presented a petition decrying the delayed compensation put under the valuation of their properties.
The residents claim that the valuation was done in 2019 and government stopped them from using the land mapped in the project.
Mr. Stanley Ntagali, the retired Archbishop of Uganda who is also among affected persons says they are not against the project but government needs to address their concerns.
“We are not against the government project but the government should also consider our concerns during the compensation process because the valuation process was done two years back almost three years and we were stopped from utilizing the project land however, up to now we are not yet paid”. Said Rtd. Archbishop Ntagali.
In response, Fred Bazarabusa the land acquisition Officer of the project said as Total Energy they will give 30% as two years’ benefits for the recovery of their compensation delay.
“We are also carrying out a review around the ECOP route registering complaints of all project affected persons so that they are solved before compensation”
Mr. Chris Emanzi from Global Rights Alert says the affected persons have to be treated fairly to ensure the inclusive development of the project.
“About 200 persons affected by the project have failed to open up Bank accounts where their compensation will be wired and 64 of them are from Hoima and Kikuube Districts and this shows that there’s no inclusiveness in the project since other people have been left out”. Emanzi adds.
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