The council chairman of Ezza South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Mrs Uphemia Nwali, and six councillors from the eleven wards of the council clashed following alleged unpaid wages and other remunerations to councillors.
DAILY POST reports that the squabble began when about seven councillors passed a vote of confidence on the female council chairman, Mrs. Nwali, during her 2024 budget presentation at the council headquarters in Onueke.
It was gathered that six out of the eleven councillors opposed and protested the vote of confidence on the female council chairman, Nwali.
Investigation revealed that the clashes resulted in a serious security breach at the council headquarters in Onueke, vandalization of many vehicles, stabbing of some persons with machetes, and destruction of other valuable properties worth millions of naira.
One of the councillors, Mr Ukpabi Henry representing Amagu/Nsokkara ward, who spoke to newsmen in Abakaliki shortly after the clash, said: “The council chairman is not doing what she is supposed to be doing at the council. The councillors don’t know what is going on in the council. The councillors don’t have any entitlement in the council.
“She did not pay us our legislative votes for nine months now. The council headquarters is overgrown with weeds. Cultism and robbery are back in the council. The council has been enjoying relative peace, but it’s no more now,” he stated.
He, however, called on the state governor, Francis Nwifuru, to call the council chairman, Nwali, to order and mandate her to pay them their entitlements to avert disrepute.
In a swift reaction, Chairman Mrs. Uphemia Nwali denied owing any entitlement or salaries to any councillors or staff of the council. She accused Ukpabi of being sponsored by the Senator representing Ebonyi Central senatorial zone, Sen. Kenneth Eze, to destabilize her administration in the council.
Nwali said: “I was presenting the 2024 budget, and everything was peaceful. The councillors passed a vote of confidence on my administration because of the peace and infrastructural facilities we have provided for the people in the council, but Ukpabi opposed it and rushed to take the mess, but other councillors overpowered him and collected it back from him.”
“He started making noise and causing trouble inside the hall. He went outside and collected a machete from his car and started snatching cars that belong to councillors and other properties that belong to the council,” she said.
