A teacher of Nabok Community Primary School has been arrested for allegedly stealing food meant for pupils.
The teacher, identified as Emmanuel Longok landed himself into trouble when the community spotted him picking food items from the school stores and loading them on his motorcycle on Saturday.
John Amei, a resident of Nabok village told URN that Longok had allegedly carried two five-litre jerrycans of cooking oil and one bag of rice by the time he was arrested.
The items were part of a donation from the World Food Program to boost learning in the Karamoja sub-region through the School Feeding Program.
Amei says that they alerted the area chairman as soon as they spotted the teacher and he instructed them to take the photos of the suspect before handing them over to the authorities at the sub-county.
He explains that prior to this, the head teacher of the school had cautioned them against following up on the matter because the food items are what they have to compensate the teachers who are not on the payroll.
Lobok Village Chairman Michael Lobuka equally explains that the suspect affirmed that he had been authorised by the head teacher to pick up the food items from the stores since he does not earn a salary for his services to the school.
According to Lobuka, the head teacher, had also taken one bag of maize flour and three jerrycans of cooking oil from the store.
Lobuka said the head teacher confronted him for blowing the matter out of proportion yet it could have been settled within the school management.
Meanwhile, Longok-the accused teacher says that his boss had delegated him to prepare food reports for the month of June as required by the World Food Program.
But, during that process, the residents stormed the office and forced him out with some food items.
Francis Kotol, the head teacher of Nabok Community Primary School defended the teacher saying he delegated him to take charge of the office and food while he was away.
Kotol noted that the accused teacher had an assignment to work on June reports that were needed urgently by the time of his arrest.
He said that the accusations are only intended to tarnish their image.
Francis Lochoro, the LC III chairperson for Lorengecora Sub County says that he is closely following the matter with the school management. Lochoro said that they are involving police to ensure that the suspect is brought to book
Lobok community primary school has an enrollment of 300 pupils and it is among the schools benefiting from the World Food School Feeding program.