Ariko, who lost to FDC’s Moses Attan Okia in the Soroti City East Division seat is aggrieved by the ruling of Soroti High Court Judge, Justice Wilson Musene Musalu that reverted Aloet and Opiyai wards to Soroti City West Division.
The application by the Soroti Municipality MP, Herbert Edmund
Ariko seeking review of the November 26th, 2020 judgement on Soroti City
boundaries has been adjourned to March 2nd, 2021.
Ariko, who lost to FDC’s Moses Attan Okia in the Soroti City East Division seat
is aggrieved by the ruling of Soroti High Court Judge, Justice Wilson Musene
Musalu that reverted Aloet and Opiyai wards to Soroti City West Division. The wards,
which were initially in Soroti City West during the creation of Soroti City,
were moved to Soroti City East Division.
Ariko in his application claims that the two wards were his strongholds but the
decision by the court to annex them to the West Division even after nominations
led to his defeat.
On November 26th, 2020, Justice Musene ruled that Aloet, Arapai, Orwadai and
Opiyai wards should be under Soroti City West. Justice Musene, in his ruling,
said that the wards were erroneously included in Soroti City East Division by
the Local Government Minister, Raphael Magezi.
The ruling by Justice Musene was delivered after it emerged that some
politicians allegedly altered the boundaries to serve their political
interests. The judge also awarded costs to the plaintiffs who include Michael
Enyagu Etadu, Robert Onanyang, Stephen Erienyu, Patrick Ejelu and Brian
Omoding.
But Ariko, through his lawyers, Alaka and Co. Advocates have now
sued the plaintiffs in the first civil suit and Electoral Commission under MISC.
Application No. 03 of 2021. The hearing of the case that was scheduled for
Wednesday morning failed to proceed when the lawyer of the respondent sought an
adjournment to enable his client’s file affidavits.
Justice Musene granted the respondents two days to file their affidavits.
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Ivan Omolo from Okello Oryem Company Advocates representing the
first five respondents says he received information of the case on short notice
to enable the filing of affidavits on time.
He also argues that the application has been taken over by events.
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Caleb Alaka says their application is seeking remedies that might
have long term effects on the city. Ariko is also represented by Robert Kirunda
of Kirunda and Company Advocates and Yusuf Mutembuli of Mutembuli and Company
Advocates.
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The fully parked court was attended by politicians especially the
newly elected leaders in Soroti City.
