The Presidency has challenged Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, to follow through on his pledge to stop campaigning if claims that his administration left financial liabilities in Anambra State are proven.
Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, issued the challenge on Wednesday in a post on X, escalating the dispute between Obi and the Anambra State Government over debts and other liabilities allegedly inherited from his administration.
Onanuga said Obi had previously claimed that he left Anambra with a clean debt record and had himself set the condition that he would abandon 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,” Onanuga wrote.
He said the Anambra State Government had since presented figures and allegations concerning liabilities allegedly left by the former governor’s administration, including obligations involving Water Corporation workers, teachers, pensions and gratuities.
“The ball is back in his court. Will he follow through on his threat by quitting the race?” Onanuga asked.
Anambra Government Disputes Obi’s Account
The Presidency’s intervention followed a fresh response from the Anambra State Government to Obi’s denial of allegations concerning debts and financial obligations dating from his tenure as governor.
Obi has rejected claims that he left behind unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities or contractor liabilities. He said his administration cleared more than ₦35 billion in historical gratuities and arrears and left office without outstanding obligations to workers or contractors whose projects had been duly executed and certified.
He has also disputed the state government’s account of a disputed ₦2 billion ecological fund, saying the money was released shortly before the end of his tenure for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis.
According to Obi, the funds were deliberately left untouched for his successor because they were earmarked for the specific project. He said more than ₦2.13 billion remained in a First Bank account when he handed over power.
Obi subsequently challenged anyone who could disprove his account, saying: “If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning.”
State Government Challenges Ecological Fund Claim
Responding on Wednesday, Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Law Mefor, disputed Obi’s description of the account.
Mefor said the account identified by Obi was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account, rather than an ecological fund account.
According to the commissioner, the state government obtained a certified statement covering the account’s transactions from its opening in 2011 to date. He claimed the records showed that the alleged ₦2.13 billion had never appeared in the account either as an inflow or balance.
The commissioner also disputed Obi’s broader account of the state’s inherited liabilities, citing outstanding loan obligations and arrears that the current administration says it has continued to service.
The competing accounts have turned the financial records surrounding the March 2014 handover into a fresh political dispute, with Obi challenging the government to substantiate its allegations and the Anambra Government maintaining that its records contradict his claims.
The latest exchange has now drawn the Presidency directly into the controversy, with Onanuga focusing on Obi’s pledge to stop his campaign if evidence emerges that his account of Anambra’s finances was incorrect.
Author
