About 22 local youth from Amuru town council who were on Tuesday temporarily contracted to offload a total of 1,187 sacks of impounded charcoal from inside three big trucks have disclosed that they were paid a reasonable amount of money after their services.
Okello Stephen, the team leader for these youth told this publication in an interview that local youth who are jobless and idle were on Tuesday signing an oral deal with DFO to empty three trucks loaded with a total of 1,187 sacks.
The local youth charged each sack of charcoal 1,000 shilling, Therefore, after the accomplishment of the task, they were paid 1.1 million shilling.
The money was shared among the 22 members who participated whereby each member received up to 53,000 shilling the money Okello says is helping the youth to buy the necessities
On Monday night, a security team together with Amuru District forest officers impounded three trucks which were carrying a total of 1187 sacks of charcoal from Apaa township in Iterikwa sub-county Adjumani district.
The impound trucks were identified as truck registration number UBM 947S which was loaded with 341 sacks, UBB 013L loaded with 372 sacks and truck number UAQ 154Z carrying up to 404 sacks respectively.
These charcoal belong to one Nakisitu Jasssi, a businesswoman from Kampala and one Twesigye Emmanuel, a business man from Isingiro district.
Odong Stephen Latek the Resident district commissioner Amuru confirmed the impoundment saying the impounded charcoal will be auctioned in line with a court order which has already been acquired by the National Forestry Authority.
The trucks were intercepted under the presidential executive order number 03 of 2023 which banned illegal dealing in charcoal businesses and movement of any other forest produce from Northern Uganda to any other part of Uganda.
