LIRA – Lira municipality mayor Mike Ogwang Olwa Veve was on Monday intercepted by police and whisked to Lira Central Police Station over the missing ex-gratia payment for division councilors.
Mr Ogwang Veve, who was attending a UPC retreat at Pauline Hotel, was picked up by Lira District Police Commander George Obia on orders of RDC Milton Odongo.
The Mayor was made to record as a statement at Lira Central Police station and was given up to 5 pm East African Standard Time to source for money and clear the arrears of the councillors amounting to over Shs70m.
Furious division councillors, majority from Ojwina Division, on Thursday caused panic when they stormed Lira municipal offices for their ex-gratia arrears.
The irate councillors left many civil servants scampering for their lives while some, including the acting town clerk Sam Ahabwe, locked themselves inside their offices.
The councillors then began turning tables round and throwing out chairs from Lira municipal council hall. They claim that Lira municipality owes all the division councilors close to shillings 78m and each councilor is expecting close to shillings 500,000.
Sam Ahabwe could not explain why LMC has for the last 5 years failed to effect the payments yet the central government has always disbursed this conditional funds.
