Gulu residents who have been affected by the proposed construction of the Juba road have vowed to fight for their residential and ancestral land if they are not duly paid. The construction work is slated for next month.

Residents have sworn not to allow any road construction to proceed unless they are duly compensated. The residents want UNRA to compensate them to a tune of Ushs 3 billion as had been established by government valuers two years ago.

"We shall mobilize everyone who was affected, and if they do not compensate us we shall make use of spears, bows and arrows and any other weapon available to protect our land," Geoffrey Otim, 46, a resident of Layibi warned.

However, UNRA refute these allegations saying that 90 percent of the affected people were compensated to a tune of Ushs 6 billion. According to Dan Alinange, UNRA communications manager, people living in the road reserves were accorded first priority of compensation, and added that compensation is still going on.

"We as UNRA already did our part, we compensated people with Ushs 6 billion beginning with those where construction was to start. We are still compensating when we begin the second phase of Atyak-Nimule road", said Alinange.  

The Layibi Division Chairman Alfred Oluba said that over 100 households from five villages of Techo Subward, Customs' Corner, Wii Layibi, Bwobo Anywaya and Lacor Centre in Gulu municipality have been affected.

Oluba also noted that the road construction will displace many people will be displaced and stifle business.

"Very many lockup shops and houses have been affected because they are in the road reserve, and worst of all, the road was to affect Lacor Hospital but because they saw it benefits the community, then it was diverted to the communities' lands and Lacor trading Centre,"he said.   

Also to be affected is a functional water pump machine opposite Sacred Heart School that was built during the Second World War for use by the Sacred Heart sisters and communities.

Gulu district chairman Martin Ojara Mapenduzi, however, challenged UNRA to give evidence of the Council resolution that the displaced would be catered for by the municipality.

"They should come out open and tell the affected people if they will get compensated or not, and if anything they should also come with a document proving that the council resolved on the matte of the compensation," he said.

The first phase of the road, Gulu-Atyak (73 Km) is funded by the Chinese and second phase of Atyak-Nimule (37 Km) by the Japanese government.

By Ojok James Onono