A bitter quarrel is said to have developed between Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State and members of the state executive council over the reluctance of the state chief executive to approve payment of severance allowances to members of the council barely one month to the end of the administration’s tenure.

A usually reliable source told LEADERSHIP that during a recent meeting with the governor, the commissioners requested for payment of their severance allowances, but our source who spoke on condition of anonymity, quoted the governor as saying that the commissioners were not entitled to severance allowances.

According to the source, the position of the governor elicited an exchange of bitter words between the state chief executive and some commissioners present at the meeting.

The governor was said to have mellowed down when one of the commissioners reminded him that he (Governor Chime), was paid severance allowance when the administration of ex-Governor Chimaroke Nnamani came to an end in May 2007.

Governor Chime was first appointed legal adviser to former Governor Nnamani, before he was made the state attorney general and commissioner for justice, a position he held until he won the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship ticket.