The Seventh Day Adventist church members in Hoima district are boiling up with anger after a section of church elders connived with some renowned land grabbers to front church in order to grab land from its lawful owner.
The accused section of Hoima SDA Church Elders is reportedly led by a one Bomson Mayanja who also doubles a secondary school teacher at Bwikya Muslim Secondary school.
Mr Mayanja is accused of conniving with Hoima’s topnotch land grabbers while fronting SDA Church. These have run to court claiming to be the rightful owners of the contentious land that the same church abandoned 34 years back according to available documents.
The land in question currently belongs and is being developed by renowned retired Pastor Philemon Wandera, the Director of Hoima Secondary school and Hoima Mixed primary School.
According to documents seen by this online newspaper, the then Hoima SDA Church Pastor Tom Kyoma consented/witnessed to the allocation of the lease agreements to a private entity Hoima secondary school parents association in 1989.
Pastor Kyoma showed no interest whatsoever which prompted the then Hoima Urban authority to allocate the land to a potential developer.
The same gang led by Mayanja has gone ahead to file a case court under Civil Suit No. 109 OF 2023 in Hoima High Court.
SDA Church elders and goers in Hoima say they are disturbed after seeing a handful of individuals led by Mr Mayanja who recently converted to SDA faith claiming the same land that he has no knowledge about its history.
“We are deeply concerned and disappointed because Mr Mayanja and his group on several occasions have been collecting lots money from us in disguise of constructing our church without any accountability”. One of Hoima SDA church members lamented, adding that the same Mayanja before they went to court already allocated themselves plots of land to themselves for the benefit of their families yet they are claiming to be securing the same land on behalf of the church.
“We are wondering whether his real intentions are to help church or to use the facilitations from the church for his personal gains”.
The same land in contention was recently recovered by Pastor Wandera from another land grabber retired a lawyer one Mugenyi after Supreme Court ruled in his favor after over 3 decades of legal showdown.
Efforts to reach out to Bomson Mayanja and his group were futile as his known phones were off by press time.
Legal experts on land matters contend that the case by Mayanja and group will likely not see any light of the day because it is time barred since the cause of action is of 34 years back and the church is estopped by law to sue the school since it consented or witnessed on the school lease agreement way back in 1989.
“Sincerely speaking, it’s a bogus case which should be settled out of court to avoid costs and damages on the side of the church” Asserted city lawyer.
Of recent several Churches have also been implicated in land grabbing schemes, with many court cases revealing fraudulent means used by some individuals in churches and mosques to acquire private/public land something that requires government intervention.
