Sulah Wasswa, a resident within the area, says the scene was chaotic as contractors tasked surveyors to avail requisite documents allowing them to open boundaries in vain.
Three surveyors
contracted by Musa Bashir, the proprietor of Hared Petroleum Limited to survey his
land at Nile Crescent Village in Jinja city have clashed with engineers from
Stirling Civil Engineering limited for attempting to plant mark stones in the
middle of Nile Crescent road.
The engineers
were puzzled as to why surveyors would plant mark stones on the road without written permission from their employers after six
months of successful road works.
Bashir is believed to have masterminded the eviction of over 700 families from
an estimated four-acre piece of land.
The surveyors
deployed to open the boundaries of the land this morning dug holes within the
road sparking off a backlash from the contractors and nearby residents.
Sulah
Wasswa, a resident within the area, says the scene was chaotic as contractors
tasked surveyors to avail requisite documents allowing them to open boundaries
in vain.
Wasswa says the crowd grew bigger after the
surveyors and their body guards started assaulting the contractors’ staff.
//Cue in: “bali bebuza…
Cue out…etudukilile,”
Frank Kiwanuka, one of the engineers who was
supervising the ongoing road works, says the surveyors had a team of eight boys
that physically assaulted them and vandalized their pickup registration number
UAT 123V.
Kiwanuka says they had laid the sub grade level
on the road and demarcated the drainage areas. But the unplanned pits have
affected the project.
//cue in: “as we were…
Cue out…damaged a car,”.
Abbey Ngako, the Kiira Region Police Spokesperson,
says three people were arrested in connection to the incident and locked up
briefly at Jinja central police station before they were released on police
bond.
Rajab Kiito, the Jinja City Spokesperson told
URN that they were not aware of the ongoing survey. Swaibu Walubo, the Estate
Manager Hared petroleum Limited admitted in a phone interview that their
surveyors made a mistake by damaging the road, saying they are engaging the contractors
to fix the damage.
.