A fresh dispute over Anambra State’s finances has put Peter Obi’s 2027 presidential ambition under renewed scrutiny, with the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council asking him to honour his earlier pledge to withdraw from the race if evidence emerges that he left the state with a debt burden.
The council, in a statement by its spokesman and Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, said disclosures by the Anambra State Government showed that Obi contracted 123.77 million dollars in external loans during his eight years as governor. It also claimed that he spent about 4.05 billion dollars and left office in March 2014 with eight external borrowings for projects covering malaria control, erosion management, education and healthcare.
According to the APC council, the figures contradict Obi’s repeated claim that he left Anambra without debt. It argued that while borrowing for development was not inherently wrong, the loans should be considered against Obi’s public claims of fiscal prudence. The council also alleged that some state workers faced salary arrears during his tenure.
Obi, however, has maintained that his administration cleared more than 35 billion naira in inherited gratuities and arrears and left office without outstanding salary, pension or gratuity liabilities. He also said 2.13 billion naira meant for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis remained untouched in a First Bank account.
Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Law Mefor, disputed that claim, saying the account referenced by Obi was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account, not an ecological fund account.
Mefor said a certified statement showed that the account had never recorded the alleged 2.13 billion naira as either an inflow or balance since it was opened in 2011.
