By Eshioromeh Sebastian
The Presidency has challenged former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi to honour his own words and resign from the 2027 presidential race, following the Anambra State Government’s detailed rebuttal of his claims that he left no debts behind.
Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, issued the challenge on Wednesday via his X handle, stating that Obi had promised to quit the race if his debt claims were disproved.
“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 wrote.
“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,” he added.
“The ball is back in his court. Will he follow through on his threat by quitting the race?” Onanuga asked.
The Presidency’s challenge followed a comprehensive response from the Anambra State Government to Obi’s Tuesday statement rejecting claims that his administration left behind inherited debts, including a N2 billion ecological loan, contractor liabilities and unpaid salaries, gratuities and pensions.
In a three-page statement signed by Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Law Mefor, the state government said it had obtained a certified printout of the First Bank account, number 2018779464, which Obi identified as the account where he left the ecological funds.
“The account is an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account, not an ecological fund account,” Mefor said. “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 consequently asked Obi to explain where the N2.13bn he claimed to have left for his successor was kept.
The government also listed eight external borrowings that remained after Obi left office on March 17, 2014, stating that as of June 30, 2026, the total balance of these loans stood at N127.4 billion at the official exchange rate.
The loans included the Malaria Control Booster Project, Third National Fadama Development Project, Health System Development Project II, State Education Programme Investment Project, Community and Social Development Project, Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project and Value Chain Development Project.
Mefor also disputed Obi’s claim that his administration left office without owing salaries, gratuities or pensions. He said the Soludo administration had cleared about N22bn in inherited gratuity arrears, but added that “legacy arrears remain from Obi and earlier administrations”.
According to him, the outstanding liabilities included arrears involving retired teachers and staff of the Water Corporation. He said the Obi administration verified and certified 16 months of salary arrears for primary school teachers but paid only five months.
The commissioner also rejected Obi’s claim that his administration left more than N75bn in savings, saying, “If there were N75 billion in savings, as claimed, where are the records?”
Obi had said in a statement on Tuesday that his administration cleared more than N35bn 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 N2.13bn was left untouched in a First Bank account for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis. He 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”.
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