ABANDONED: Lira Bodaboda Expose Their Broken Tie with UPC Akena, Reaffirm Full Support For Museveni, Dr.Aceng

The leadership of the Bodaboda in Lira City under their umbrella of Lira United Bodaboda motorcycle association ( LUMBA) has dropped a bombshell about their disagreement with UPC party president Jimmy James Akena. 

While addressing the media, Moses Okori the association chair intensively explained UPC Akena's claims that his Bodaboda project was hijacked by Lira City woman mp and Health Minister Dr. Jane Ruth Acheng is false and a fake propaganda to gain attention from the president of Uganda.

Instead, he alleged, it was Akena himself who made a decision to abandon them on claims that they had switched their support from Uganda People’s Congress to the National Resistance Movement.

‘’We did not abandon MP Jimmy Akena. It was actually him who opted to leave us and neglect us upon realizing that we were supporting Dr. Jane Aceng for Lira City Woman MP in the 2021 elections,’’ Okori explained.

Okori publicly dismissed Akena's claims that the project was the initiative to address the issue of unemployment among youth in Lango, he said that it was his own initiative to formally register a group to address the challenges of the members. 

He added that, after registering the Association in 2012, they started giving out motorcycle loans to their members and that business went on very well.

 Mr. Okori was on Wednesday responding to the claims making the rounds on various media outlets reportedly engineered by Lira City East MP and UPC party President Akena, alleging that Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng hijacked bodaboda from Akena leaving him with the burden to pay bank loan accounting to sh 15 billion.  

 MP Akena on different media have been claiming that he had injected a lot of his personal money in the bodaboda through LUMBA.

Our sources alleged that recently while meeting the president at the Statehouse, MP Akena brought the issue before president Museveni for consideration. 

Okori alleged Akena did not invest anything in their Association and that he just accompanied them to Post Bank and helped them lobby as a leader of Lira Municipality then.

Even the motorbikes given to bodaboda he said they used to get on loan, whose only security was logbooks held by the bank ‘’Akena did not use his father’s house as loan security, let him stop lying’’. He said as progressive group, just like they approached Akena, the admirations of Dr. Jane Aceng’s good leadership attracted them to approach her after his abandonment and that she welcomed that and assisted them to move on with the business in another Bank since they had also supported her in her campaigns.

He further suggested that Akena could have been annoyed by them because of supporting Dr. Aceng because he already knew of his wife Amongi plan to run against her in the 2026 elections.

‘’Neither the NRM government nor Dr. Aceng fought Akena’s partnership with the Bodaboda association LUMBA, he fought himself out and his abandonment almost led to our collapse, had it not been Aceng that came to our rescue’’ Okori explained, requesting for an audience with President Museveni to brief him their side of the story and avail him relevant documents in regards to the saga.

About their opinion on the 2026 general elections, Okori pledged bodaboda’s commitment to ensuring that President Museveni retains his seat as the Head of State.

‘’President Museveni is a tested leader and capable of leading Uganda. We shall massively mobilize support for him and our Dr. Aceng Ceng Atedero for Lira City Woman MP,’’ Okori explained. 

Currently, UPC is no longer enjoying support from Bodaboda group as it used to due to the broken relationship between them and Akena.