Presidency Challenges Peter Obi To Honour Quit-Race Pledge Over Anambra Debt Claims

By Sabiu Abdullahi

The Presidency has challenged the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Peter Obi, to honour his pledge to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race if claims that he left Anambra State with outstanding financial liabilities are established.

The challenge was issued by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, in a post on X on Wednesday. It followed a fresh exchange between Obi and the Anambra State Government over the financial position of the state when he left office as governor in 2014.

Onanuga said Obi had previously claimed that he handed over Anambra without debt and had also pledged to stop his presidential campaign if evidence emerged to the contrary.

“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 said the Anambra State Government had now presented what it described as records of liabilities linked to Obi’s tenure.

“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 latest development came after the Anambra Government disputed Obi’s response to allegations that his administration left behind debts and other financial obligations.

Obi had maintained that his administration cleared more than ₦35bn in historical gratuities and arrears before leaving office. He also rejected claims that the state owed salaries, pensions, gratuities or contractors for duly completed and certified projects.

One of the major points of disagreement concerns an alleged ₦2.13bn ecological fund. Obi said the money was left untouched in a First Bank account for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis.

The Anambra Government, however, disputed the description of the account and the amount claimed. Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Law Mefor, said a certified statement obtained by the government showed that the account was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account rather than an ecological fund account.

Mefor said, “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.”

He further stated, “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 account of outstanding loans and arrears. According to Mefor, eight external loans remained after Obi left office, with their combined balance put at ₦127.4bn as of June 30, 2026, at the official exchange rate.

The loans listed by the government relate to projects in areas such as healthcare, education, erosion control, agriculture and community development.

The government also said it had addressed inherited gratuity arrears and alleged outstanding salary obligations involving some workers, including retired teachers and former Water Corporation employees.

On the Water Corporation workers, Mefor 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.”

He also said, “The Obi administration verified/certified 16 months of salary arrears for primary school teachers but paid only five months.”

The state government further questioned Obi’s claim that his administration left more than ₦75bn in savings.

Mefor said, “We will not engage in nebulous creative accounting. If there were ₦75 billion in savings, as claimed, where are the records?”

Obi, however, has challenged anyone who can establish that his account of Anambra’s finances was incorrect.

“If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning,” Obi said.

The dispute has therefore shifted from competing statements about Anambra’s finances to a demand for supporting records, with Obi and the state government maintaining different accounts of the state’s financial position at the end of his administration.