LAND FRAUD! Rider hotel boss, Tororo Archdiocese priest faceoff

 

A Catholic priest attached to the Archdiocese of Tororo, Fr. Centurio Olaboro has been dragged to court over land Grabbing, Forgery, Fraud and Criminal Trespass.

The Man of God is in trouble after High Court in Tororo restrained him, all his agents, the registered trustees of Tororo archdiocese and the commissioner land registration, Johnson Bigirwa from accessing, evicting or interfering in any way with the owners occupying land comprising in a freehold Vol.1180 Folio 21 Block 8 plot 470 land at Angorom, Angololo and Amunuoit Villages, Busia District.

“An interim order doth issue restraining the 3rd respondent from holding a public hearing in regard to the cancellation of the applicant’s certificate of title to land described as FRVHQT 1180 Folio 21 Bugwe Block 8 plot 470 land at Angorom, Angololo and Amunuoit, Busia District until the determination of the main application No .31 of 2023,” reads part of the order by Doreen Ajuna, the Tororo Chief Magistrate.

Her order followed a threatening letter written by commissioner land registration Johnson Bigirwa who had summoned over 15 land title owners including John Okware, Mzee David Ocheng Okolongo and others for a public meeting aimed at cancelling their titles on ground that Fr. Centurio Olaboro and the Tororo archdiocese trustees had claimed ownership of the same land.

GENESIS

John Okware, the man behind Ridar Hotel in Seeta, Mukono narrates that he acquired the land from 2008 and later expanded it in 2010 when he bought more land from 8 families of customary land owners with over 57 beneficiaries.

Among some of the customary families included Omodia Patrick, Anthon Obbo, Matilida Adongo and Oketcho Steven. Others were Mike Okolongo, Etianga Geoffrey and Longino Masanga.

He goes on to say that all the occupants at that time were compensated and vacated the land.

During the transactions, all local council one chairpersons attended and endorsed on the sales agreements and later boundaries were opened with the neighbors. He said that he started using the land and in 2013 he filed for a freehold land title until 2017 when he got it.

However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, he got information that some people took advantage of the lock down and encroached on his land, started digging part of it.

He could not chase them at that time since he was in Kampala and movement of people had been restricted.

He said that on December 22, 2022 after the lifting of the Covid-19 restrictions, he sent one Nighty Owor to inform those using his land to vacate.

Shockingly they shunned Owor demand saying that they were allowed to use the land by Fr. Olaboro.

Efforts were made on December 23, 2022 and a case of trespass was opened at Tororo CPS where Steven Obbo, a one Okello’s wife, Toppie Apio, Jesca Akumu, Paskar Ojambo and Patrick Owino and others were summoned at Central Police Station, Tororo but to the surprise of many, it is Fr. Olaboro and one Alfred George Obore that surfaced on behalf of the summoned persons.

Okware further revealed that on February 27, 2023 a group of people armed with axes, machetes, and sticks allegedly led by Fr. Olaboro and Obore raided the land in question at 6am disguised as land owners to open the boundaries.

A group of thugs, Fr. Olaboro and Obore were arrested with mark stones and other equipment and charged with criminal trespass and case files vide CRB 025/2023 and 056/2023 were opened at CPS Tororo.

OLABORO RUNS TO LANDS OFFICE

Following the above background Fr. Olaboro took refuge in the commission land registration offices where he tasked Commissioner Bigirwa to cancel over 15 land titles from the three villages of Angololo, Angorom and Amunuoit where over 3000 people are to be evicted.

Olaboro pointed out in his letter that the land belongs to Tororo Catholic Archdiocese and he is one of the trustees of the church.

Information that was independently obtained reveals that Bigirwa wrote to the 15 title holders asking them to attend a public hearing to cancel their land titles.

These included among others Busia sugar and Allied ltd, Adongo Matilida, Emojong Odeke Joram, Emojong Florence Lawil, Ademun Helmy Karen and Nyaketcho Catherine.

Others are Eria Okello, Andrew Obara, David Okolong, Okolong David Ochieng , Ojambo Sedurak,  Kirinya sugar factory estate and John Okware.

OKWARE TAKES ON OLABORO

Okware’s lawyer, Dominic Emiru was instructed to take on Fr. Olaboro and others to the law class and should he (Olaboro) fail the law lessons then he could be referred to a nearby institution of understanding in Morukatipe.

Emiru took action with ref. No.31 of 2023 arising from civil suit no. 020 of 2023 and asked the court to stop Fr. Olaboro and all his agents from interfering on Okware’s land with the commissioner land registration not to hold any public hearing in regards to the land in question.

The court records and the interim order by Tororo Chief Magistrate Ajuna indicate that Fr. Olaboro was served with court summons but dodged to acknowledge it.

He reportedly told the court servant to go and tell his bosses that he never got him. This however backfired because the court representative had captured the Man of God reading the summons. Using the photos she had captured using her ipad she swore an affidavit and it was put on the file.

“I hereby affirm that Fr. Olaboro was duly served by me (Steven Kasera) on 26/6/2023 asking him to appear in court on 3rd July 2023 but he declined to sign. To prove I took his photograph while reading the court documents on the same day but none attended court,” part of the affidavit reads.

While on issues of visiting locus for each one to show his land, the priest was summoned and refused to sign, then he was called on phone and said he would appear before Chief magistrate in 5 minutes but never surfaced.

The Chief Magistrate in her judgment indicates that after all failed attempts to have Fr. Olaboro appeared in court and failure to visit locus court she went ahead took notice and looked at a copy of the hearing notice from the commissioner land registration summoning the parties for a hearing.

She said that court also got chance to visit locus to establish who is in possession of the land in dispute and took photos where it found out that John Okware is 100% in possession of the land in dispute where he  is cultivating rice, Millet, sorghum, Maize , beans and also a Eucalyptus forest on the disputed land.

PUBLIC HEARING FLOPS

Efforts to pursue a public hearing by Fr. Olaboro’s lawyer Enock Kayondo failed on a hard rock when chairing RT. For Tororo Harriet Fuarwinyu rejected and called off the meeting on ground that the lands commission had no powers to proceed and hear matters that involve fraud and the court had given an interim order over the same land.

While at Lands registration offices in Tororo on Tuesday July 25, 2023 Fr. Olaboro’s lawyer Kayondo tried to reason that the court order in place affects only Okware but not the rest of the other title holders.

However he was out reasoned by Okware’s lawyer that the matters involving fraud as stated by Fr. Olaboro by law cannot be heard and proved with  land registration offices but court and that the same reference letter used to summon the over 16 titles was challenged and no basis for any hearing.

Basing on the above background Harriet Fuarwinyi stopped the public hearing and asked all aggrieved parties to seek court redress.

“I have listened to all of you, and I noted lawyer Emiru’s submission over fraud and therefore we have no powers to conduct a hearing on matters involving fraud so go to court and sort out yourselves” RT Harriet Fuarwinyi told the gathering in Tororo.

OLABORO, OBORE SPEAK OUT

Rev Fr. Olaboro, the Tororo Archdiocese’s coordinator for peace and justice, and George Alfred Obore, chairperson of the archdiocese’s land committee both regard themselves as the registered trustees of the church in this matter.

According to Fr. Olaboro, they have a land title which was acquired in 1982  block 8 plot 20, a lease where the title was given to Wejuli on 1/10/1982 for 49 years after 5 years. He said that Wejuli sold the land to Rev James Odongo who also sold the same land to the church at Shs80m. “We have all the documents to support our cause and we shall prove it in court,” Olaboro said.

OLABORO’S FACTFILE

Fr. Olaboro is a born of the present day Osukuru sub county and currently the director of Great Aubrey Secondary school opposite Tororo cement.

He is currently battling a battle with Tororo cement over building a wall fence near a road reserve on the side of Tororo cement.

During his time at Daban Catholic church he reportedly misappropriated FUNDS to build a school Great Aubrey Tororo but Christians complained and by then the former Chief Justice. Benjamin Odoki and the Principal Judge Jack Ogola intervened, asking him to account for the money.

To get out of the Odoki hook, the priest reportedly took over 30 Christians to Ridar Hotel in Seeta and told them that the money he used to build the school was given by his cousin brother John Okware.

He called Okware and told him to greet the Christians and assured them that money came from Ridar Hotel which was not true. Olaboro is also in bad books with his family after taking their land to build a school which he said was an orphanage school but in reality students pay fees.

He is on court records for instancing murder at St. Anthony’s Hospital Tororo over a disputed land. Olaboro was arrested in October 2022 with three other security guards over the death of Emmanuel Onder. Records indicate that Olaboro settled the matter out of court by compensating the deceased’s family.

Olaboro is also involved in the matter of arson in Tororo where he is accused of abetting the crime in which the house was burnt over a land conflict in a place after Nyangole.DEAR READER, DO YOU HAVE A HOT STORY YOU WOULD LIKE US TO PUBLISH…
FRAUD IN BANKS, BETTING FIRMS, CHEATERS, DIVORCE FILES, SEX NETWORKS, SEX FOR MARKS, HARASSMENT OF ALL NATURE AT OFFICE BY YOUR BOSS, CHILD NEGLECT, WETLAND OCCUPATION, ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION, VIDEOS, IMPUNITY or CORRUPTION (in government agencies/ MDA’s, NGOs, Ministries, Private sector), FIGHTS IN OFFICES, JOB WARS/ WITCH HUNT, URA TAX FRAUD/NON-COMPLIANCE, CHEATING MONEY LENDERS, BUSINESS WRANGLES, SUBSTANDARD PRODUCTS, GOLD SCAMS, NSSF REMITTANCES NON COMPLIANCE, LAND ISSUES, INTERNAL AUDIT REPORTS EXPOSES, POLITICAL WRANGLES…ETAL.
CALL/TEXT/WHATSAPP 0777959024 OR EMAIL: redpeppertips@gmail.com WITH AS MUCH EVIDENCE AS POSSIBLE.
SOURCE PROTECTION/CONFIDENTIALITY IS OUR NO.1 PRIORITY.