Two senior Ngora District engineers and a fuel station manager appeared in court Tuesday after they were accused of stealing fuel worth more than UGX 35 million that was meant for district road works.
The State House Anti-Corruption Unit, working with the Criminal Investigations Directorate and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, charged Opio Stanslas Francis, the Acting District Engineer; Okello Samuel, Assistant Engineering Officer; and Oroni Herbert, Station Manager at Retta Solutions Uganda Limited. All three face counts of theft and conspiracy to defraud.
The Ngora Grade One Magistrates Court remanded them until May 5, 2026. Police say others who took part in the scheme remain at large.
Investigators allege that between 2024 and March 2026 the three conspired at the Retta Solutions fuel station in Ngora to divert government fuel. They repeatedly claimed the fuel was needed for road construction and maintenance inside the district when it was not.
Ngora District received UGX 1.75 billion from the central government in the 2024/25 and 2025/26 financial years for building and repairing roads. Yet many roads in the district remain in poor condition. Local residents and stakeholders had complained for months that the money was not delivering the expected results.
Court documents show Okello Samuel regularly collected fuel without signing for it and without permission from the Acting District Engineer. Officials say he worked with Oroni Herbert to use the fuel for purposes unrelated to any government project.
Opio Stanslas Francis is accused of failing to supervise his assistant, which allowed the scheme to continue undetected.
The government releases road grants to districts and municipalities every year so that ordinary Ugandans can travel on better roads and receive improved services. Anti-corruption teams, however, keep finding cases of misuse across the country, leading to more arrests of district officials.
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