A community development officer in Kole district has been jailed after she was charged with obtaining money by false presence.
Lucy Aciro Ejura, the CDO in charge of Aboke Town Council, was arrested by the police working with the State House Anti-Corruption Unit and subsequently arraigned before the Kole Magistrates Court, which later remanded her until March 24th.
“The accused obtained over UGX 13 million from various women groups in Kole District under the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP), including Oryem Can, Obanga Akica, Okole, and Aparango Women’s Groups,” reads part of the charge sheet.
She claimed to help the groups bank the money but ended up diverting it for personal use.
On September 15, 2023, this news website broke a story regarding how Aciro had been widely accused by the local residents of extortion.
This was contained in a detailed report filed by Kole North MP Dr. Samuel Opio Acuity after he had conducted extensive oversight roles in the sub counties of Alito, Aboke, and others.
On September 8, 2023, the MP for Kole North, Dr. Samuel Opio Acuti, commenced his oversight visit with a meeting attended by leaders and members of the Ogwangacuma Parish PDM Sacco.
MP Dr. Opio later highlighted various irregularities, including double payments, extortion, missing funds, and framed arrests, in the PDM program in Ogwangacuma SACCO, and all were pointing to Aciro’s office.
“This is not my first time to uncover such rot in government programs. In 2021, during the Emyooga oversight program, Ugx 131 million was stolen from the SACCO accounts in all 15 out of the 16 constituency SACCs that received the money. This was under the watch of the then RDC, who was the chairperson of the Emyooga task force,” says the Kole North MP.
According to the report, for example, Kole North Boda Boda Sacco received the sum of Ugx 24.953 million, yet Ugx 38 million was withdrawn from the account. It was discovered that the sum of Ugx 14 million was missing and unaccounted for, and in Kole North Performing Artists Sacco, some Ugx 17 million was unaccounted for.
The report established that many beneficiaries had their loans reduced from Ugx1 million to Ugx800,000; another had their loans reduced to 600,000/=, while others had their loans reduced to 500,000 and even 300,000/= under the directives of one Achiro Lucy, the Community Development Officer (CDO) of Aboke Town Council, who asked them to pluck off pages in their loan forms that had 1 million Ugx and replace them with figures that she assigned to them.
The SACCO chairman, Okii Edward, and several group leaders reported that their earlier arrests had been framed by the CDO, Achiro, after they refused to collect 30,000 Ugx per member in order to receive their PDM money, a claim that she recently denied.
“The group withdrew 8.5 million Ugx on January 25, 2022, and on the same day lent the money under the instructions of the CDO and district focal person for UWEP, Lucy Achiro. The group prepared the minutes, and Akona Denis signed for the money, promising to pay within 10 months. It was surprising since UWEP is a women’s program, and having a man as a beneficiary was disturbing. I was informed that Akona Denis is related to the CDO, and this needs to be investigated. The group therefore, instead of receiving 10 million Ugx, only received 4 million,” reads the report.
MP Dr. Opio’s report revealed that the CDO, Aciro, being complained about was also the focal person for the UWEP program (Uganda Women Empowermentogram), in which he had discovered a lot of irregularities earlier in February 2022 and officially reported them to the CAO to investigate.
“The group withdrew Ugx8.5 million on January 25, 2022, and on the same day lent the money under the instructions of the CDO and district focal person for UWEP, Lucy Achiro. The group prepared the minutes, and Akona Denis signed for the money, promising to pay within 10 months. It was surprising since UWEP is a women’s program, and having a man as a beneficiary was disturbing. I was informed that Akona Denis is related to the CDO, and this needs to be investigated. The group therefore, instead of receiving 10 million Ugx, only received 4.0 million,” reads the report.
In his report, MP Opio demanded the immediate intervention of the State House Anti-Corruption Unit.
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