Even though Ugandan based USA businessman Calvin David Echodu has funded a number of National Resistance Movement (NRM) flag bearers in Teso Sub Region since 2016, his intentions to contest for political office were minimal until flamboyant flight captain Mike Mukula competed with him in the fight over Soroti Gulf Club land.
This investigative website has established that it all started when Echodu entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with members who claimed to be the custodians of Soroti golf club land and registered themselves as rightful owners.
Echodu, being a businessman wanted to develop the land and he even put private buildings on it which was contested by a section of Soroti city council members who insisted that the said land was owned by Soroti city council. His buildings were subsequently demolished.
Sources who were in the middle of the fight told this website that Echodu compromised the councilors who overturned their earlier decision stopping him from developing the said land.
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However, he was shocked when the lands minister Judith Nabakooba in 2023 issued an order stopping him from developing the land and directing the Commissioner land registration to establish the true owners of the said land.
Echodu investigated privately and he was informed that Mukula is the man fighting his multibillion deal.
He was later assured that it will be very difficult for him to win because Mukula is very powerful.
He was also told that it will be difficult for him to compromise Mukula concerning the deal because he is also interested in developing the land.
Sources divulged that meetings were held to compromise Mukula but he stood his ground and insisted that if Echodu wants to take any public land, he should follow the laws of the country.
This angered Echodu.
When he asked where Mukula was getting all the power from when was no longer in the government structure, he was told that the man sits on National Resistance Movement (NRM) top organ the Central Executive Committee (CEC) and he always talks to the President and even asks for his assistance on any matter he has interest in.
Because Echodu was very bitter with Mukula for the lose he had put him into, he declared a political war on Mukula and since 2023, has been silently mobilizing political support. When he first announced his political ambition to contest for the position of the NRM National vice chairperson in charge of Eastern Uganda in 2024, Mukula undermined him only concentrated on Sanjay Tana.
Sources said that Mukula was shocked when he was told that Museveni and his young brother Gen Salim Saleh had endorsed Echodu.
“Museveni directed that Echodu’s security be beefed up. He was given a lead car with Special Forces Command (SFC) Commandos to help him when moving around the country mobilizing for support. Both Museveni and Gen Saleh were impressed with Echodu’s connections and family,” a source said
He added that one of the reasons why Museveni and Gen Saleh were happy with Echodu is because they thought that he was going to help them use his connections to mend Uganda’s relationship with United States of America and European Union.
Echodu’s wife, Dorothy Echodu is a US citizen and a granddaughter of Philanthropist and a businessman Douglas Dillon a former US Treasury Secretary and a former chairperson of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Echodu’s wife is also a celebrated international business woman who runs a number of multibillion businesses in United States, France, United Kingdom and other countries
In Uganda, they run a number of businesses ranging from education facilities, accommodation facilities and transport.
The President was happy to learn that the man was funding NRM candidates even without expecting any benefits apart from trying to champion peace in the country.
Sources said that at first Mukula banked on Speaker Annet Anita Among who had huge support from the president and Al-Hajji Moses Kigongo the NRM National vice chairperson.
He thought planned that they hold campaigns together but the calculation didn’t help him because Echodu was unstoppable especially on the ground.
He was forced to pull out of the race at the last hour citing corruption, bribery and other criminalities surrounding the said elections even though he had invested billions of shillings.
