Moroto Grade One Magistrate’s Court has remanded five people, including two Electoral Commission staff members in Napak district to Singila Government Prison until February 3, 2026 over election malpractices
Joseph Abongo, a returning officer; Job Kelae, a presiding officer; and Solomon Lokoru were accused of breaking into the Napak Electoral Commission offices, destroying, and tampering with ballot papers for the Bokora East constituency parliamentary election at Napeilet village, Napeilet polling station.
However, all three through their lawyers, Francis Okello and Peter Baguma denied the charges and pleaded not guilty and applied for bail, citing concerns over their re-arrest and continued detention without notification.
Okello told the court that the three were initially arrested on January 21, 2026, and released on police bond on January 23, which was set to expire on January 30.
However, they were re-arrested at 2:00 AM on January 24 without prior notice and have remained in detention since then.
The defence argued that it was unconstitutional for the case to proceed without the input of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP), and that their clients should be granted bail while their files are being processed by the DPP.
But the Moroto Resident State Attorney (RSA) opposed the bail application, requesting time to review the sureties presented and to forward the case file to the DPP for further assessment, a move the defence claimed was a tactic to delay the bail hearing.
Okello reminded the court that several previous bail applications had been delayed due to missing files after transmission to the DPP’s office.
Grade One Magistrate Bassajja Mugisha assured the defence that the bail application would be heard regardless of whether the case file was present.
SOURCE: URN
