By Najib Mulema
On Tuesday, the Land Inquiry commission summoned Abbas Mawanda, a man who sold 366 acres of land in Temangalo to businessman Amos Nzeyi to explain how he acquired the land in question.
While appearing before the commission headed by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire on Wednesday, Mawanda, the former managing director of Uganda Development Bank accused Nzeyi of forging numerous land documents.
He described several sale agreements for the purchase of 366 acres of land in Temangalo, application for re-entry and subdivision presented by Nzeyi as ‘forgery’.
Mawanda told the commission that he sold the 366 acre land to Nzeyi at once and not in phases as he stated.
“I was shocked this morning to see an agreement showing the sale of 60 acres purportedly signed by me but the signature is not really mine. I sold Nzeyi one title of 366 acres and I have never sold to him in pieces. I doubt the sale agreement of 60 acres with Nzeyi because I did only one agreement for the whole land,” said Mawanda as quoted by PML Daily, a local news site.
On Tuesday, Nzeyi told the commission that he rightly bought the disputed land in phases from Mawanda and his interest was to set up a dairy farm though later he decided to sell it the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) in 2008 at the exorbitant Shs11 billion.
Last month Asian Family led by Nazim Moosa filed complaint before the Land Commission claiming to be holders of the original title of the land comprised of Block 296 plot 20 in Busiro, on which it operated a Tea Estate -Temangalo Tea estate – before the expulsion of Indians by former President Idi Amin in 1972.
The family testified that they acquired 79 year lease on the disputed land in 1924, from the family of a one Daniel Mugwanya Kato contending that the land was sold without noticing them yet they had ownership about the disputed land.
Nazim said upon return in 1993, they applied for repossession of their land from the Departed Asians Custodian Property Board and they were told that government had no claim over their land since it was never declared upon expulsion.
Nzeyi said no one approached him for the more than 10 years he spent on the land in question.
The commission however, retrieved documents that indicted that the case about that land October 26, 1994 where court adjourned it to be settled out of court. Since then Nzeyi didn’t act as court directed them. Nzeyi said he has no clue about allegations.
He revealed that he owns multiple land titles on the land in question. He owns land tiles on Plot 12 63 hectares at Temangalo registered in 1992, Plot 16 block 296 8.78 hectares 1991, Block 296, plot 21, 1992, Block 277 plot 191 and other titles.
The inquiry established that despite owning mass titles at Temangalo, Nzeyi owns other pieces of land Plot 613 Kigoma a distant place from the land in question. Commission revealed that Nazim said they have always tried to reach Nzeyi and they have always failed.
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