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The Acting Deputy Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of Katakwi district local government has been remanded to Luzira Prison following her failure to produce an accused person in court. The Nakasero-based Anti-Corruption Court, under the stewardship of Grade One Magistrate Esther Asiimwe, made this decision on March 4, 2024.
The individual at the center of this legal issue is Joseph Opus Ariko, an engineer employed at Invent Techniques Limited. Ariko faces serious charges including embezzlement, forgery, and the uttering of false documents. Scola Alupo, the Deputy CAO, had previously stood as a surety for Ariko on May 6, 2019, committing herself to ensure his appearance in court whenever required.
Alupo signed a bond form, pledging to pay 100 million shillings in case Ariko failed to appear or abscond. However, according to court records, Ariko has been absent from his trial since the previous year, and Alupo has failed to produce him in court as obligated. Consequently, the court took the decision to remand her due to this failure.
Magistrate Asiimwe declined Alupo’s request to pay the money in installments over six months. Instead, the court granted Alupo until March 11, 2024, to either produce the accused or pay the specified amount of 100 million shillings.
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The prosecution’s case against Ariko alleges that in 2017, at Bank of Africa in Kampala, while serving as a director of Invent Techniques Limited, he embezzled 212 million shillings from the company’s bank account. Furthermore, Ariko is accused of forging a board resolution on November 17, 2017, with the intent to defraud, falsely claiming it was signed by Ludwig Ocung, another director of Invent Techniques Limited.
The prosecution also asserts that Ariko uttered a fake document at Bank of Africa, dated November 17, 2017, falsely stating that the board of Invent Techniques Limited, represented by Ocung, had passed a resolution in the company’s name to open an account at the bank.
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