By Musa Sabir

The initial developers of Gaagaa Textile Market have dragged Arua City Council to court. They are demanding compensation for allegedly being denied to complete the 25-years period as per the MOU they had.

In 1991, Arua City Council, by then at the municipal status opened for a private-partnership deal to develop the area that attracted people to apply and later permitted to construct lockups from 1993 which lasted for 2-years. An agreement was signed stating that the space will revert to the council after 25 years. 
However, the group argue that the council has considered to end this agreement 2-year before completing 25-years signed. The Chairperson of the group Rolex Munduni says they used 2-years to develop the area which needs to be compensated. “We only used the market for 23 years and council has decided to take over without our consent” he said. With this case now in court, the group Treasurer, Jimmy Candia is hopeful that the council will respond to their concern. “Our prayer is that the issue comes to a conclusion in the most amicable way because it pains us a lot that’s why the case is still in court.” 

However, Deputy Arua City Clerk, Cornelius Jobile argues that Memorandum of Understanding signed by the developers states that the 25-years agreed to use this space came to effect in 1993 and this concluded already.