By Godwin Abedican

Arua

Following an accident that took place on 14^th May 2023, at Aliria Corner Ediofe mission under Ayivu division in Arua city involving a land cruiser vehicle with registration number UG3765M belonging to Uganda blood bank Arua regional unit that lost control and rammed into London view unisex saloon and Orlando and sons metal fabrication in the same area, the owners of the business premises have dragged the department to court over failure to compensate them for the loses caused to their business.

The accident allegedly took place when the said vehicle was being driven by a driver from the regional blood bank as they were coming back from a marriage ceremony with 14 people said to have been in the vehicle during the time of the accident.

After the accident took place, the blood bank meet the owners of the two businesses with promises to compensate them but until now all that was agreed has not been fulfilled leaving the claimants with no option but proceeding to court.

According to one of the claimants, Fred Orlando the owner of Orlando and sons metal fabrication, who lost welded doors and windows in the accident, asked to generate the cost of damages to be compensated of which he generated a bill of five million, Nine hundred and fifty thousand shillings (5,950,000 Shs) which has not been effected until now. “We went to the police, they made the files, we were asked to produce evidences, we took them and they were attached to the files. I think they are just waiting for the person who is to handle our case and the files will be sent to court” he explained.

According to Orlando, as a result of the delays, working has become very difficult for him. “We don’t know if it is the government delaying us or not. Because up to now there is nothing much we are doing in terms of work. Since then we are just trying to recover and all this time that is being wasted I don’t know what they will think about it. I have 5 young people am training, 3 permanent staff including myself we are 9 in number, I feed these people daily I have to buy food at home, I also have other people I am taking care of and this accident has badly affected me because the little I had saved I have finished spending on trying to recover from the loses. I have been forced to lay off three of the people I was training because I cannot manage their upkeep and if this delay continues, then the rest may also have to go,” Orlando painfully narrated.


Hillary Asindua, the owner of London view Unisex saloon

Meanwhile, Hillary Asindua, the owner of London view unisex saloon says he is struggling to raise fees and other necessities for his children after his only source of income was totally damaged during the accident. “We are facing a lot of difficulties here more especially on the side of customers. This is the right time for us to get money since it’s the season for school. But what hurts me a lot here is that, the damages caused by this vehicle of blood bank, we met the boss one called Anguyo Gilbert, he told us that we should first give them the Bill of quantity for the house and the items that got damaged, which I gave and was roughly twenty five million (25,000,000) shillings. He told us he is going to give us a call when it is ready but up to now, there is no any other feedback yet,” Asindua explained.

ASP Okwi Musa Eryennyi, the OC Traffic Arua City confirms that the complainants are continuing to pursue the case at the police. “They wanted to be compensated at the scene which is not in the law that someone should come and compensate you at the scene. We advised them to come and make a report and make statements. We picked the vehicle which brokedown, we towed to the police, as I speak now the vehicle is with us. The complainants followed us at police here, they made their statements” he said.


ASP Okwi Musa Eryennyi, the OC Traffic Arua City while speaking to radio pacis in an interview

According to him, the complainants are not happy due to the delays. “They may have sat somewhere and the people who own this vehicle went to them because the latest information we have is that as if these people went to them and wanted to solve the matter with them but it’s unfortunate that the matter is not yet solved whereby what they agreed upon has not been put into action. We also had to receive what they were claiming as damages, we just advised them that this file has to go to regional state attorney (RSA) so that we can get what we call legal advice from the RSA, we are only waiting for the Inspector Of Vehicles (IOV) to inspect the vehicle of which we have already told him to do, so that we can attach the inspection report to the file and we take the file to the RSA” Okwi added.

Responding to the compensation questions, Gilbert Anguyo, the head of the regional blood bank unit says all the plans are in the pipeline for the compensations to be done soon. “As an office which works with the community, we felt the owners need to be compensated, we had a discussion with them and got a contractor who came on ground to demolish the remaining structure and excavate. So we are going to put back that saloon, and also compensate them for the equipment that were destroyed. We expect by next week the works should have started and after the building is put to its former original state, they will receive the equipment”.

The two complainants of the Metal fabrication and the Saloon are demanding compensations worth a total sum of thirty million nine hundred fifty thousand (30,950,000) shillings combined as they are seeking court intervention into the matter.

COVER PHOTO: The Land cruiser towed from the scne as onlookers observe the distructions By Godwin Abedican