Two Lira District local government officials have been sentenced to prison after admitting their involvement in the irregular processing of a land title for property belonging to the district.
The Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala on Thursday sentenced Senior Land Management Officer Joseph Ocen Alwong to four years in prison and District Staff Surveyor Francis Opio to three years.
The convictions followed a plea bargain in a case involving abuse of office and conspiracy to defraud.
The two officials had been accused of using their positions to facilitate the transfer of public land into private ownership.
District land titled in daughter’s name
The case relates to transactions carried out between February 2019 and October 2020, when Alwong and Opio were working for Lira District Local Government.
According to the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, the officials facilitated the irregular processing of a freehold certificate of title for land belonging to the district.
The property was subsequently registered in the name of Alwong’s daughter as Plot 19, Ben Emor Road, Ireda Estate, Lira District.
Investigators said the title was obtained after Alwong’s daughter was falsely presented as the customary owner of the land.
The prosecution accused the officials of using their positions within the district’s land administration system to facilitate the transaction.
Arrested in 2024
Alwong and Opio were arrested and charged in 2024 following investigations conducted jointly by the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, the Criminal Investigations Directorate and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
They were subsequently charged with abuse of office and conspiracy to defraud.
The case was concluded through a plea bargain after the two officials admitted their roles in the offences.
Alwong was sentenced to four years in prison, while Opio received a three-year sentence.
The Anti-Corruption Unit said the two officials had previously been convicted in a separate case involving similar offences.
Thursday’s convictions form part of continuing prosecutions involving the alleged misuse of public office and irregular acquisition of government property.
