Monday 18 May 2015

Minister, district boss clash over illegal fishing

KALANGALA- State minister for Fisheries Zurubabel Nyiira and Kalangala District chairperson Willy Lugoloobi have clashed over execution of operations against illegal fishing, with each accusing the other of abetting the crime.

Prof Nyiira claimed Mr Lugoloobi sympathises with people engaging in illegal fishing, which is the reason he declined to meet him when he visited the district last week. “People like Mr Lugoloobi who mislead the public do not deserve to be leaders. We are fighting illegal fishing, but he seems to side with wrong elements who are abetting the vice,” he said.

The minister was in the district to assess the progress of the operations against illegal fishing.
When contacted, however, Mr Lugoloobi said, the district leadership skipped the minister’s meeting because they were not informed in time.

“No leader here supports illegal fishing, but the minister simply wants to work alone. He never informed us of his visit in time. We only learnt about it when he was already here,” he said

Pinned
Mr Lugoloobi wondered how the minister would fight illegal fishing in Kalangala “yet he has failed to do it in Entebbe where his office is located”.

“The minister has failed to fight illegal fishing in Entebbe where his office is and wants to use soldiers to harass my people here. That is not fair.

Let him first close markets dealing in immature fish and illegal fishing gear and we shall deal with illegal fishing on Lake Victoria,” Mr Lugoloobi added.

Prof Nyiira also witnessed the burning of illegal fishing nets confiscated by the Reserve Force in Masaka District last week. Kalangala deputy fisheries officer Jack Wycliffe Mbaleeba said during their operations, the soldiers are supposed to move with fisheries officers to verify if the fish captured is immature, but they rarely follow this and hardly have any means of transport.

“…because they (soldiers) were not well facilitated, they could sometimes arrest fishermen with immature fish and later sell it to get facilitation-which is against our guidelines,” Mr Mbaleeba said.

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