Danger as MP Adriko loses top agents to opponents

By Andrew Cohen Amvesi

ARUA. Yovan Adriko, the Vurra County Member of Parliament (MP) should prepare for a very tough moment during the 2026 elections following the rate at which his agents are crossing to opponents’ camps.

The latest was on Friday when more than 50 agents of the incumbent MP including his sister publicly crossed to join Peter Pariyo’s camp.

This was during a function Pariyo organized at his home in Ezuku, Vurra sub-county in Arua district to declare intention of contesting again in 2026.

In the last election, Pariyo contested against Adriko as an Independent candidate after losing in NRM primaries but couldn’t still make it through due to the formidable team MP Adriko had built.

The team included the majority of the agents who finally abandoned the MP on Friday to join Pariyo ahead of the 2026 general election.

Some of the top agents include; Liberty Opinira, Kennedy Obeti who was Adriko’s coordinator for Ajia sub-county and Samuel Acidri aka Ondangia, the overall coordinator of the incumbent MP.

Other agents were from Logiri sub-county which happens to be Adriko’s home sub-county, Arivu and Vurra sub-counties.

In his remarks, Ondangia sought forgiveness from the people of Vurra for their action in 2021 and said time has now come to support Pariyo come 2026.

Meanwhile Opinira said he was forced to pick different loans from banks to support Adriko who promised to pay him back the monies after going through but to date, no coin has been given to him in that regard.

“I’m a teacher. I picked loans which I’m paying back for seven years. That when he (Adriko) passes, he will pay all the loans I picked but nothing has happened up to now. For the last two years we have been in power, I have been getting a net salary of Shs80,000 every month out of Shs560,000 but thank God I have not died. God usually helps the suffering people,” Opinira said as he declared support for Pariyo.

Similarly, Obeti said, they have come to tell the people of Vurra that they did a mistake to support Adriko.

“I was Adriko’s coordinator of Ajia sub-county, he passed because of us. The issues Adriko stood for were not what he is doing now. We didn’t support him because of money, instead we were even using our own money to campaign for him. But within these few years he has been in Parliament, he has disappointed us badly. He is not representing us in Parliament the way we expected. Time has now come for us to support Pariyo,” Obeti said.

Pariyo thanked the new team for joining his camp and promised not to let them down in the struggle to transform Vurra County.

Pariyo noted that once voted in office, he will remain in touch with the people on ground so as to get the challenges they face and present them on the floor of Parliament.

“I have risen for the occasion to see that service delivery in Vurra should be effective and efficient. I must be able to link with my local people, being a businessman for quite a good number of years, I have been interacting with the community. So, in doing my work, I have ably seen the challenges my people are going through and so, I’m in a better position to represent them in Parliament,” Pariyo said.

He observed that key on his agenda is to lobby for the construction of community access roads in Vurra which are currently in a very sorry state.

Boniface Alioni, the Arua district NRM chairperson welcomed Pariyo to the race and said as party leaders, they are looking forward to a peaceful campaign and elections in 2026.

He said so far, five people have shown interest in contesting for Vurra County Parliamentary seat under the NRM ticket.

However, by press time, MP Adriko’s known telephone number couldn’t be reached for a comment over the massive defection in his camp.