Moses Omagon, Soroti – The integrity of the lawyers in Soroti City has come under scrutiny from the general public after the arrest of two lawyers accused of conniving to steal a land title from an elderly businessman, John William Agwau, of Soroti City.
The two lawyers, David Obore of Obore Advocates and Opit working with Engwau Advocates, allegedly aided in the drafting of a fake agreement that led Mzee Agwau to lose his land title in a botched deal.
According to Mr. Joseph Agwau, the son of Mzee Agwau, in December 2018, Mzee Agwau was taken to Kampala for medical rehabilitation due to memory problems and excessive forgetfulness.
He said that when Mzee Agwau returned from the hospital, he wanted to process a loan from Equity Bank to complete his hotel rooms within town. Unfortunately, he met with the conmen.
“We intervened as a family to find out what was going on. At first, Mzee didn’t want to tell us the truth until he became open and revealed that some people convinced him to give them the land title, claiming they had a deal to get a treasure box but needed the land title as security,” he explained.
Mr. Agwau said they quickly registered a case of theft by trickery at Soroti Central Police Station, and the case was registered under Soroti CPS Theft/38/2012/01/24.
He added that the two lawyers were summoned by police, recorded their statements acknowledging their wrongful participation, and were arrested but released after promising to produce the title.
Mr. Agwau said two other people accused alongside the two lawyers have since been remanded to Soroti Prisons. These include Andrew Epodoi and Eperu Robert Mihanda.
Mr. Agwau added that his father had initially paid Shs 4.3 million to Opio and Co. Advocates based in Soroti to file a case in court, but they didn’t follow through, necessitating the hiring of another lawyer who executed the duty.
When contacted, Mr. Opio confirmed knowledge of the situation but declined to comment since the issues are already before the Uganda Law Council.
“I’m surprised they approached you, given that the issues are already with the Law Council, but all in all, we did the work,” he said.
Several attempts to get a comment from Mr. Obore were unsuccessful as his known phone was switched off.
However, this publication has learned that this incident has caused the public to lose trust in Soroti lawyers.
Okiror Benon, one of the residents, said most lawyers in Soroti are only interested in their personal gain and rarely win cases.
“We have only a few selected law firms in Soroti with genuine integrity, but the rest are disasters,” he said.
Patrick Odeke, another resident, appealed to the Uganda Law Council to revoke the practicing licenses of the above-mentioned lawyers until they produce Mzee’s land title.
“We know what happened; all those documents were forgeries, and they took advantage of Mzee’s condition to take his title,” he said.
Betry Akerieut, another resident, said it is unfortunate that the lawyers, who are supposed to stand for the voiceless, are now taking advantage of the poor to rob them of their property.
Agness Apolot from Soroti town wondered why the court released the two lawyers even though they admitted to forging the agreements and forcing Mzee to sign them, fully aware of his condition, without any of his sons or relatives present.
Soroti City has been ranked as the most corrupt city in the country, where everything is done irregularly.
The level of corruption in Soroti City has reached such a peak that there is no need to follow rightful procedures to acquire anything in the city.
