By Ado Oyeyemi
The Presidency has challenged the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Peter Obi, to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race if his claims that he left Anambra State without outstanding liabilities are disproved.
Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, issued the challenge on Wednesday while reacting to the ongoing dispute between Obi and the Anambra State Government over the financial obligations allegedly inherited from his administration.
Onanuga said Obi had previously stated that he handed over the state without outstanding debts and had pledged to stop his presidential campaign if anyone could prove otherwise.
According to him, the Anambra State Government had now presented claims that contradicted Obi’s account, including alleged liabilities involving workers of the state Water Corporation, teachers, pensions and gratuities.
“The ball is back in his court. Will he follow through on his threat by quitting the race?” Onanuga asked in a post on X.
The latest development followed a statement by Obi on Tuesday in which he rejected allegations that his administration left behind unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities, contractor liabilities and an ecological loan.
Obi said his administration had cleared more than ₦35bn in historical gratuities and arrears before leaving office, insisting that the state did not owe salaries, pensions, gratuities or contractors for duly executed and certified projects at the point of handover.
He also disputed the government’s claim concerning an ecological fund, saying more than ₦2.13bn released for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis was left untouched in a First Bank account for his successor.
However, Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Law Mefor, disputed Obi’s account, saying the account identified by the former governor was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account and not an ecological fund account.
Mefor said the state government had obtained a certified statement of the account from its opening in 2011 to date and claimed that it contained no record of the ₦2.13bn cited by Obi.
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The commissioner also said the state was still servicing eight external loans inherited from previous administrations, with their combined outstanding balance put at about ₦127.4bn as of June 30, 2026, based on the official exchange rate. He further disputed Obi’s claim that no salary or gratuity arrears were left behind.
Obi, however, has maintained that his account of the state’s finances is accurate and challenged anyone who could prove otherwise, saying, “If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning.”
The dispute has now shifted from the state’s debt profile to a direct political challenge over Obi’s pledge concerning his 2027 presidential campaign.
