PRESIDENCY CHALLENGES PETER OBI TO QUIT PRESIDENTIAL RACE OVER ANAMBRA DEBT CLAIMS
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By ‘Sefiu Ajape
The Presidency has challenged former Anambra State Governor and Nigeria Democratic Congress presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to honour his pledge to quit the 2027 presidential race if claims about financial liabilities allegedly left by his administration are proven.
Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, made the challenge in a post on X on Wednesday, following a fresh response from the Anambra State Government over Obi’s record as governor.
Onanuga said Obi had claimed that he left Anambra without debt and had threatened to withdraw from the presidential race if his claim was disproved.
Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
He wrote, “Peter Obi claimed he left Anambra with a clean slate of debt and even threatened to quit the presidential race if his claims were proven otherwise.”
Onanuga added that the Anambra State Government had responded with claims concerning liabilities allegedly left by the former governor’s administration.
“Now, the Anambra government has confronted him with facts and figures showing he owed Water Corporation workers, teachers, and pension and gratuities, and had also borrowed for frivolous things,” Onanuga said.
“The ball is back in his court. Will he follow through on his threat by quitting the race?” he asked.
The reaction followed a fresh response by the Anambra State Government to Obi’s Tuesday denial of claims that his administration left behind inherited debts, including an alleged ₦2bn ecological fund liability, contractor obligations, and unpaid salaries, gratuities, and pensions.
Obi had maintained that his administration cleared more than ₦35bn in historical gratuities and arrears and left office without outstanding salary, pension, or gratuity obligations.
He also disputed the government’s claim concerning the ecological fund, saying more than ₦2.13bn was left untouched in a First Bank account for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis.
However, in a statement on Wednesday, Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Law Mefor, disputed Obi’s account, saying the account he identified was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account and not an ecological fund account.
Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State
Mefor said the government obtained a certified printout of the account and claimed that “from 2011 when the account was opened until date, there has never been any such amount—whether as inflow or balance—in the account.”
The commissioner’s statement also challenged claims surrounding outstanding loans and salary, pension, and gratuity arrears allegedly linked to previous administrations. The state government said several external loans remained outstanding and that it was servicing the debts.
Obi, however, had challenged anyone who could establish that his account of the state’s finances was incorrect, saying, “If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning.”
The dispute over Anambra’s finances has therefore escalated into a political exchange involving Obi, the state government, and the Presidency, with the parties presenting competing accounts of the state’s financial position at the end of Obi’s tenure.
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