Former Ministry of Public Service principal accountant in the pensions department, Mr Christopher Obey has died, Uganda prisons spokesperson, Mr Frank Baine said on Friday.

Mr. Baine said Obey died on Friday from pneumonia-related complications.

“He died today. He had a history of pneumonia which has been disturbing him. It worsened yesterday (Thursday) and we rushed him to Mulago National Referral Hospital. He was put on oxygen but he, unfortunately, died today,” Uganda prisons spokesperson, Mr Baine said.

Obey was in 2016 sentenced to prison for stealing more than UGX. 88.2 billion of public funds through the payment of pensions to thousands of “ghosts”.

Other convicts in the multi-billion public service pension scandal included former Director of Research and Development, Stephen Kiwanuka Kunsa and Jimmy Lwamafa, the former permanent secretary. Mr Obey was handed a 10-year jail term which he has been serving.

The three senior officials enriched themselves by paying pensions to pensioners whose identities were forged from scratch for their benefit.

They counterfeited 2,652 identities, according to the court.

Additionally, Mr Obey was in July 2017 also convicted with other two officials at the public service ministry in connection to the forgery of a judicial document in order to siphon over Shs15.4 billion pension cash.