By Rita Alobo (rita.alobo@vol.co.ug)
Lira
Lira city council hall was yesterday temporarily turned into a boxing ring as councilors exchanged serious blows after failing to come into agreement with each other concerning delays by Lira city authority to pay their allowances for last financial year.
The councilors yesterday stormed Lira City Council headquarters and demanded for their pay from the mayor Sam Atul and Lira Town Clerk, failure of which they threatened not to leave.
The mayor and town clerk then led them to the council hall to try to calm them down.
The 94 councilors from both Lira City West and Lira City East division however turned chaotic after failing to come to into agreement with each other, with some siding with the city leaders which resulted in fist fights and chairs sent flying in the air.
This attracted the attention of Lira city east division commander Geoffrey Abigaba and Lira RCC Lawrence Egole who arrived promptly to arrest the situation.
Each councilor was supposed to be paid 420,000 for three Quarters of last financial year.
The deputy Town Clerk of Lira City Patrick Ogweng blamed the mess on failure by central government to send funds on the city accounts instead of the former Lira municipal council accounts which is affecting several of their activities.
Ogweng said they will do all it takes to pay the councilors’ allowances.
Nuwagaba Justinian the Commissioner for Urban Administration in ministry of local government asked Lira city leaders to find alternative sources of income to clear the councilors’ allowances.
