Stolen Soroti Hoes: Six More Arrested, 27 Boxes Recovered
Written by admin on June 28, 2021
The Police in Soroti have arrested six more people in relation to the theft of hoes at Soroti City stores early this month.
The new arrests comprise businesspersons operating within Soroti City, namely, Phoebe Alupo, Fred Enabu, Simon Opejo, John Bosco Okiror, Charles Akol and Alex Osauro. They arrested following a tip off from residents that they were selling government hoes.
Oscar Gregg Ageca, the East Kyoga Regional Police Spokesman says the police recovered 27 boxes containing 648 hoes from the traders. According to Ageca, they are still following leads from their informers and hope to recover all the hoes soon.
He adds that the 14 city officials arrested last week have been given police bond pending the decision of the State Attorney who guides legal matters in the police.
The officers arrested last week include the Chief Finance Officer, Abraham Oriokot, the Police Officer on duty at the City offices whose names have been concealed, the Records Officer Michael Olum and the Production Officer who reported the matter, Dr. Isaiah Odokorach.
Others were the City Planner, Andrew Iteba, Office Supervisor, Stephen Okwango, Inventory Officer, Emmanuel Engole, Office Attendant in Finance department, Martin Edopa and two officers from the Audit Department, Samuel Aremu and Joyce Takan, among others.
The Police, over the weekend, discovered that 101 out of 1,157 boxes of hoes delivered to Soroti City were missing from the stores. The hoes were a consignment by the National Agriculture Advisory Services, NAADs in fulfilment for the presidential pledge of 2016 campaigns.
Robert Adiama, the Resident City Commissioner of Soroti says the investigations into the matter is being handled by both the Police and Army.
The report by the Head of Production at Soroti City dated June 22nd indicates that Tianjin Machinery Co. (U) Ltd delivered a total of 1,157cartons of hoes to Soroti City on June 10th, 2021. The hoes were kept in production and finance departments. But more than half of the hoes in finance department were stolen prompting the police to arrest all the staff in the unit.
