Ssekikubo, team pitch camp in West Nile to hunt for signatures

Arua, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Members of Parliament (MPs) fronting the censure motion against parliamentary commissioners have pitched camp in the West Nile to collect the remaining six signatures from their colleagues in the sub region.

Over the past one month, a group of MPs led by Lwemiyaga County legislator Theodore Ssekikubo, began collecting signatures to support a motion to censure parliamentary commissioners Mathias Mpuuga, Prossy Akampurira, Esther Afoyochan, and Solomon Silwany whom they accuse of awarding themselves 1.7 billion shillings as a service award without the House’s approval.

Currently, only a handful of 13 members of parliament out of the total 39 in the West Nile sub region have already signed the censure motion.

Speaking to the press on Wednesday evening at the West Nile golf club in Arua city, Ssekikubo disclosed that they have collected 171 signatures out of the required 177 to bring the motion to the floor of parliament. He further noted that parliament should be the last institution to run away from accountability especially when oversight remains one of the core mandates of the legislature.

According to Ssekikubo the people of the West Nile sub region cannot afford to remain invisible in the fight against corruption owing to their previous contribution in the political development of Uganda.

Yorke Alioni Odria, the MP for Aringa South County in Yumbe district who has been one of the faces behind the censure motion maintains that their intention is not to fight their colleague MPs in the parliament but a fight against corruption in the country. He appealed to the voters to join the fight against corruption by wooing their area MPs to sign the censure motion.

However, Twaib Feni, the Executive director of West Nile Regional Civil Society Network challenged the MPs in the sub region who haven’t signed the censure motion to stop hiding under the assertion that the service award was appropriated by parliament and therefore they can support the motion.

The MPs are expected to travel to Lango and Acholi sub regions in the coming days  to collect additional signatures from their colleagues who are currently on recess.

******

URN