Security agencies in Amuru District have launched a manhunt for unknown individuals suspected of setting fire to a sugarcane plantation belonging to Amuru Sugar Works Ltd.
Favour fm has learned that about two acres of sugarcane in Akee Village, Kololo Parish, Lakang Sub-county, were set ablaze on Sunday evening.
David Ongom Mudong, the Aswa West Regional Police Public Relations Officer, said in a statement issued yesterday that police had launched investigations into the suspected arson.
Mudong says no arrests had been made by press time but notes that investigators had obtained leads that could result in the arrest and prosecution of the suspects.
The sugarcane plantation is a joint venture between the Madhvani Group of Companies, which holds a 51 percent stake, and the government through the Uganda Development Corporation (UDC).
The project sits on approximately 8,600 hectares of land.
After years of delays, the Madhvani Group began planting sugarcane on the land last year following the government’s issuance of a 49-year lease and compensation to some of the affected landowners.
Geoffrey Osborn Oceng, the Amuru Resident District Commissioner, told Favour fm yesterday that preliminary intelligence suggests the arson was motivated by grievances from some landowners over delayed compensation.
According to Oceng, some of the suspected perpetrators claim they have not received the full compensation for about 46 hectares of land acquired for the project.
By URN
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