The Presidency has challenged former Anambra State Governor and Nigeria Democratic Congress presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to honour his pledge to stop campaigning if claims about his administration’s financial record in the state are established.
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 by the Anambra State Government to Obi’s defence of his record in office.
Obi had said on Tuesday that claims that his administration left behind debts, unpaid salaries, pensions and gratuities were “completely false”.
He also challenged anyone who could prove otherwise to produce evidence, saying, “If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning.”
Reacting to the exchange, Onanuga said Obi should now act on the condition he attached to his campaign pledge.
Onanuga 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.”
He added, “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.”
“The ball is back in his court. Will he follow through on his threat by quitting the race?” Onanuga asked.
The latest controversy centres partly on an account Obi identified as containing more than ₦2.13bn in ecological funds allegedly left for his successor in 2014.
Obi said the money was released about three months before the end of his tenure for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis and that he deliberately left it untouched for the incoming administration.
“The money was therefore left 100 per cent intact in First Bank, in Account No. 2018779464, with a balance of over ₦2.13 billion,” Obi said.
However, Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Law Mefor, disputed the claim, saying the government had obtained a certified printout of the account.
“We have obtained a certified printout of the account from inception to date. The account is an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account, not an ecological fund account,” Mefor said.
He added, “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 state government also disputed Obi’s claim that he left office without outstanding financial obligations.
Mefor said the Soludo administration had cleared about ₦22bn in inherited gratuity arrears, while alleging that some legacy arrears linked to earlier administrations remained.
He said, “salary arrears lingered through the Obi administration and were eventually settled under the Soludo administration, with the first two of three instalments already paid.”
Mefor further alleged that Obi’s administration verified and certified 16 months of salary arrears for primary school teachers but paid five months.
“The Obi administration verified/certified 16 months of salary arrears for primary school teachers but paid only five months,” he said.
On the wider debt position, Anambra Commissioner for Finance, Izuchukwu Okafor, had said the Soludo administration had not borrowed from any commercial bank since assuming office but was still servicing loans inherited from previous administrations, including those of Obi and former Governor Willie Obiano.
Okafor said deductions were being made from the state’s Federation Account Allocation Committee funds to service the inherited loans, while claiming that the state’s debt burden had been reduced by more than 83 per cent.
Obi, however, maintained that his administration cleared more than ₦35bn in historical gratuities and arrears and left office without outstanding salaries, pensions, gratuities or certified contractor obligations.
“We systematically liquidated historical gratuities and arrears dating back several years, amounting to over ₦35 billion,” he said.
“At the point of handover, the state owed nothing in salaries, gratuities, or pensions, nor did we owe anything to any contractor for projects duly executed and certified,” he added.
Discussion0