Apaa land is not for cheap political bargains, Adjumani LC5 boss warns MP Akol

Adjumani, (UG):- The LC5 Chairperson for Adjumani District, Mr. Anyama Ben has castigated Hon.Akol Anthony, the MP Kilak North County, for demanding the creation of the Apaa district in exchange for joining the NRM Party, warning that Apaa will never be used as political bait for puerile self-greed.

While briefing Journalists at his office on Wednesday, February 26, 2025, Mr. Anyama described the MP’s demand as outrageous, annoying, and very provocative because Apaa does not belong to NRM but the people of Adjumani who offered it for conservation through the district council in 2002.

Mr. Anyama has cautioned NRM leadership against trading on dangerous grounds in the recruitment of high-profile opposition leaders because some of their demands are volatile and unjustifiable. He added that no person or opposition leader who wants to join NRM should be allowed to hold the party hostage by making demands which can cause huge cracks in the NRM party.

The LC5 boss further warned that any attempt by the government to act on such illegitimate political demand would lead to full-scale violence because the people of Adjumani will not tolerate acts of aggression and attempts to forcefully grab Apaa land which belongs to the Madi people, the Madi people will therefore not relent and fight until the last person standing is down.

On February 5, 2025, during a meeting in Pabo town council Amuru district visit the speaker of Parliament to Amuru MP Akol said he was willing to join NRM on the condition that the government should gazette East Madi Wild Life Reserve for human settlement and create Apaa district so that the illegal settlers who are currently occupying the land would settle peacefully.

In reaction to the statement of MP Akol, the district executive committee of Adjumani in its sitting on February 24, 2025, resolved that the UPDF 501 Brigade commander Col.Byaruhanga David should be transferred with effect immediately as his actions of forceful evictions are deemed consistent with the agenda of MP Akol.

Mr. Mondia Phillip, former district vice chairman of Adjumani district, says the government should trade carefully on the matter because it will remind the Madi people of the inhuman treatment they suffered at the hands of Acholi chiefs in various bloody battles where hundreds of lives were lost in the late 1880s.

“The young Acholi leaders shouldn’t forget the history of violence between the Madi and Acholi when the Acholi attached the Madi people across the River Nile in Metu hills before sharp arrow shooting soldiers of Metu chiefs repulsed them driving them back to the river Nile at (Laropi)on the banks of river Nile where hundreds were killed”. Mr. Mondia recapped.

He said such a nasty event in the history of the two bordering tribes should not re-occur because thereafter they have co-existed harmoniously for a long period but unfortunately, some greedy politicians in Acholi like; MP Akol Anthony Secretary General Mr. Towong Richard and Hon.Nobert Mao the Minister of Constitutional Affairs among others wants to re-open an old wound.

The Adjumani FDC strongman  Mr. Tadrupasi Patrick said the demand of MP Akol is disgraceful and offensive and must be outrightly rejected by NRM leaders because one-time opposition leaders might make demands that may cause indescribable anguish to the entire community and wondered how Akol ought to demand for creation of a district out of Adjumani district if indeed he is not courting conflict?.

During the recent NRM caucus meeting held at state house Entebbe, Hon Akol was invited as a special guest by NRM chief Hon.Hamson Obua, it is not clear whether his switch to the NRM party has been completed.

Several leaders in Adjumani believe the statement of MP Akol is consistent or synonymous with the UPDF operations in the Apaa area where several Madi farmers have been driven out of their farmland, over 60 grass-thatched houses destroyed, but members of the Acholi communities have reportedly been granted safe settlement in the area.

Meanwhile, the RDC Adjumani, Mr. Taban Data Peter has convened a district security committee meeting for Saturday, March 1, 2025, for which items on the agenda are expected to be dominated by the statement of MP Akol on Apaa land and the alleged forceful evictions of Madi farmers by Col.Byaruhanga are expected to dominate the meeting.