A primary seven teacher at Lalar primary school in Nwoya District has been convicted and sentenced to two years in prison for stealing a school temperature gun.
Prosecution told court that Michael Abonga, 37, and resident at Lalar teachers’ quarters in Oyinya village in Alero sub-county reportedly stole the infrared thermometer worth Shs3000,000 over a Shs60,000 the school owes him.
Appearing before the Nwoya Grade One Magistrate, Susan Anyeko, the science teacher who was arrested on December 3, 2020, a week after the act pleaded guilty to the offence before asking for leniency requesting the magistrate to allow him pay a fine of Shs200,000.
The magistrate rejected Abonga’s plea and handed him a two-year jail term at Pader government prison.
Reading her verdict, Ms Anyeko said Abonga’s act was likely to put the lives of learners and teachers at the school at risk of contracting COVID-19.
“You are a teacher in the same school and you choose to steal a temperature gun used for measuring pupils’ and teachers’ body temperature, exposing lives at school at risk. You carry an obligation but you choose not to honour it. I, therefore, sentence you to two years imprisonment at Pader government prison”, Ms Anyeko read her ruling.
A source told this website that this is purportedly the second time Abonga stealing the school property. Sometime back, Abonga allegedly stole a solar inverter and a battery belonging to the same school but was later pardoned.
The law
Section 261 of The Penal Code Act states that “Any person who steals anything capable of being stolen commits the felony called theft and is liable, unless owing to the circumstances of the theft or the nature of the thing stolen some other punishment is provided, to imprisonment not exceeding ten years”.
