By KT Reporter
Three individuals, including two Electoral Commission staff members in Napak district, were remanded to Singila Government Prison in Moroto on Wednesday after appearing before the Grade One Magistrate’s Court. 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.
In addition, the court accused Solomon Lomokol of possessing a sharp knife in public with unknown intentions. All three denied the charges and pleaded not guilty. Through their lawyers, Francis Okello and Peter Baguma, the suspects 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.
The Moroto resident state attorney 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. He remanded the three until February 3, 2026, for the bail hearing.
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