Tolit Ivan
Lawrence Okello, the embattled proprietor of Oil Energy Uganda Ltd, has been remanded to Luzira prisons accused of illegally constructing a fuel station on a gazetted wetland in Gulu City in total disregard of condition No. 4.3 of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Certificate.
Okello was apprehended on Wednesday by the Statehouse Anti-Corruption Unit in Green Valley cell, Bardege-Layibi Division, where he had resumed construction activities on Plot 31, Gulu Avenue and arranged before court on Thursday.
While appearing before the Makindye Chief Magistrate Court, Okello was charged for failing to comply with the conditions stipulated on the certificate of approval of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment No NEMA/ESIA 13705 contrary to section 157 (f) and (ii) of the national environment Act Cap 181.
According to court, the accused person allegedly between Match and Dec. 2024, stubbornly continued to carry out construction of a fuel station in Pece wetland located in Green Valley Cell, Bar-dege-Layibi, Gulu City, in total violation of the physical planning laws, building control laws and NEMA certification.
The court also heard that Okello is a renowned encroacher on gazetted areas including wetland, forest reserves and other public wetland.
Further investigations into his alleged involvement in numerous acts of encroachment on protected areas are still ongoing, according to court filings.
He was remanded to Luzira Government prisons until December 16, 2024.
This is not the first time Okello is getting into trouble with the law.
In December last year, Okello was charged with five counts of fraudulent procurement of certificate of title, altering, moving, destroying, and defacing boundary marks of a forest, clearing and occupying a forest reserve for commercial and industrial purposes in Lira City. He was consequently remanded to Lira Main Prisons.
For starters, in 2021, 2022, 2023 Gulu City Council blocked the same company from establishing a fuel station in the area already demarcated in a wetland.
On April, 29, 2024 the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) also halted the construction of a fuel station on Pece Wetland.
On 26 March, 2024 Gulu Chief Magistrate Said Barigye also halted the establishment of a fuel station on the land.
Environmental experts have recently warned that the sale of the Pece Wetland is putting Gulu city at risk of flooding and will deepen the water crisis in the city coupled with the destruction of aquatic animals in the different wetlands.
Pece wetland is the biggest wetland in Gulu City covering 55.9% (1027 ha) of the total surface 1836.4 ha of wetland areas of the City.
Pece stream provides natural sponges that trap and slowly release water, and reduce flood heights and erosion within the city centre.
