Gulu auctions 1700 bags of impounded charcoal
Charcoal. Gulu District authorities have resolved to auction more than 1,700 bags of impounded charcoal. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
Mr Okaka says that the money from charcoal shall be used to support the district Covid-19 taskforce activities. Buyers after hearing the news flocked to the municipal offices to buy for themselves bags at as low as Shs20,000 instead of market price of Shs45,000.
Gulu District authorities on Thursday afternoon ordered for the immediate auctioning of more than 1,700 bags of charcoal that were impounded on Tuesday and Wednesday during lockdown operations.
The charcoal that was loaded on four trucks, was impounded as dealers attempted to transport it to Kampala during night hours.
Gulu District Chief Administrative Officer, Mr Geoffrey Okaka, told Daily Monitor on Thursday that the decision to auction the charcoal was in accordance with a recent resolution by the district COVID-19 taskforce that suspended commercial charcoal trade in the area over fears of spreading the disease.
“We issued a directive early this month that there should be no more movement of charcoal trucks. These Lorries claim to have come from Adjumani but we failed to verify their records with Adjumani District,” he said.
Mr Okaka says that the money from charcoal shall be used to support the district Covid-19 taskforce activities. Buyers after hearing the news flocked to the municipal offices to buy for themselves bags at as low as Shs20,000 instead of market price of Shs45,000.
“This should serve as a warning to other commercial charcoal dealers that this is not the time for business but staying home and keeping healthy. Any charcoal truck we see will be impounded and the charcoal auctioned,” he added.
According to him, the trucks from which the charcoal was offloaded shall be towed to Gulu Central police station since the owners ran away fearing arrest.
