Two Lira district officials jailed over irregular title for government land
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Uganda's Anti-Corruption Court has sentenced two Lira District local government officials after they admitted facilitating an irregular land title for property belonging to the district that was titled in a private individual's name.
Two Lira District local government officials have been sentenced to prison after admitting their roles in the irregular processing of a land title for property belonging to the district, Nile Post reported.
The Anti-Corruption Court on Thursday convicted and sentenced Senior Land Management Officer Joseph Ocen Alwong and District Staff Surveyor Francis Opio through a plea bargain. Alwong was handed four years in prison, while Opio was sentenced to three years.
The two were charged with abuse of office and conspiracy to defraud in relation to the processing of the land title, offences the Anti-Corruption Unit says were committed between February 2019 and October 2020 while the officials served in their positions at Lira District Local Government. According to the unit, the officials facilitated the irregular issuance of a freehold certificate of title for land belonging to Lira District, which was subsequently titled in the name of Alwong's daughter as Plot 19, Ben Emor Road, Ireda Estate, in Lira District, after falsely claiming that she was the customary owner of the land.
The officials were first arrested and charged in 2024 by the Anti-Corruption Unit, working with the Criminal Investigations Directorate and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. The unit said the pair had previously faced similar charges and were convicted and sentenced in an earlier case, receiving three and four years respectively.
The case was handled jointly by the Anti-Corruption Unit, the CID and the ODPP, as authorities continue prosecuting cases involving alleged abuse of public office and government property.