Nursery pupil murder: suspect claims police tampered with CCTV evidence

What the report says

The Observer reports that a Ugandan court has heard claims from Suzan Vivian Ariokot, the director of Jozan Nursery and Primary School and one of six people charged in the death of six-year-old pupil Joan Faith Apio, that police may have tampered with CCTV evidence stored on her phone. The allegations were raised during the defence hearing in the murder case, which is being heard before Justice Boniface Wamala.

According to the report, Ariokot’s lawyers said footage from her shop on Soroti Main Street could help show she was away from the school when Apio was killed on February 5, 2025. They also told court that they had been unable to obtain CCTV recordings from Pride Bank and Soroti Regional Referral Hospital, which they regard as important to the defence. Ariokot said she had taken three phones to police on February 11, 2025, to demonstrate her innocence and that the recordings were still visible before the devices were seized.

The report says the court later ordered that the phone linked to the CCTV system be charged and inspected in court, but the footage Ariokot had expected to retrieve was missing. Ariokot also claimed that other recordings she had earlier submitted to police were no longer available. Her account raises questions about the handling of digital evidence in a case that has drawn public attention because it involves a school child’s death.

Justice Wamala ordered that Pride Bank in Kampala be served with a notice to release CCTV footage from the day in question. The hearing was adjourned to August 12, 2026, which the court said would be the final adjournment for the defence case.