Things did not pan out the way Kwania deputy resident district commissioner Jacob Jonga had hoped.

On the day he had thought he would possibly get relief from heading back to jail, time was instead not his best ally, and third time was not the charm.

Eventually, he was led back to Gulu Main Prison, where he will spend another nine days until he returns to court for a third shot at bail.

Jonga is accused of assaulting Alebtong resident district commissioner Jilian Akulu on June 25 at Gulu University in northern Uganda during a stakeholder's meeting on the Operation Wealth Creation programme.

He was arrested on the same day and detained at Gulu Central Police Station.

Two days later, he appeared at Gulu Chief Magistrates Court to answer charges of assault. He pleaded not guilty and was remanded to Gulu Main Prison after being denied bail.

One week later, on July 4, he returned to court but was again not granted bail.

In that second appearance, Jonga presented two sureties, including Rev. Geoffrey Okello. But the court declined to approve his bail application because the resident state attorney who originally handled the case was attending another court session at the time.

The prosecution team then asked the court to adjourn the case until July 7, awaiting a response and approval from the resident state attorney.

Chief Magistrate Said Beryeje remanded Jonga until the requested date when he would be cross-examined for a bail grant.

Come July 7 (Friday) and it was déjà vu for the defense team.

This time, Beryeje ruled that the court did not have enough time to listen to the prosecution team cross-examining the bail application.

It was around 5:30 pm.

The Chief Magistrate insisted that it was past the working hours and that the court session had to stop due to the multiple cases that had consumed all the time.

He, therefore, sent the Kwania deputy RDC back on remand until July 17.

This means that Jonga will have spent three weeks behind bars by the time he returns to court hoping to finally be granted bail.