Oyat Binanysio, a 70 year old resident of Nwoya District has dragged American Tower Corporation (ATC) to the High Court over allegations of land grabbing.
American Tower Corporation (ATC) Uganda is a multinational company that provides wireless and broadcast infrastructure in urban and rural locations.
Oyat claims he was led to believe the mast being set up belonged to the government for the benefit of his community until he discovered of recent that the mast is actually private infrastructure belonging to ATC. One of the many other masts it has in the area.
When contacted for a comment on the matter, a member of ATC staff initially claimed the said site did not belong to ATC but later in a follow up call rectified his statement by saying that the company had paid Nwoya District Local Government for the parcel of land in dispute.
When asked why the company instead paid Nwoya district, the staff member stated that “the cell mast is on a hill and as far as he is concerned, hills belong to the government”.
Oyat whose late father and grandfather lived on this same land maintains that this land belongs to him and his family.
Oyat’s lawyers declined to comment on the case. The lawyers have since opined that they cannot comment on the issue since the matter in still in courts of law.
The High Court of Gulu has scheduled the hearing of the case for September this year.
