Presidency challenges Peter Obi to quit 2027 race over Anambra debt claims

The Presidency has challenged former Anambra State Governor and presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Peter Obi, to honour his pledge to quit the 2027 presidential race if claims about the state’s finances during his tenure are proven to be false.

The challenge was issued on Wednesday by the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, amid an ongoing dispute between Obi and the Anambra State Government over debts and financial liabilities allegedly left by his administration.

Onanuga, in a post on X, said Obi had claimed that he left Anambra State without debt and had offered to withdraw from the presidential contest if his claim was disproved.

Presidency questions Obi’s pledge

“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 now presented claims concerning liabilities allegedly left by Obi’s administration, including obligations involving Water Corporation workers, teachers, pensions and gratuities.

“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 reaction followed a fresh response from the Anambra State Government to Obi’s Tuesday denial of claims that his administration left behind inherited debts, including a ₦2bn ecological fund, contractor liabilities and unpaid salaries, gratuities and pensions.

Obi disputes ecological fund allegation

Obi had said his administration cleared more than ₦35bn 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 ₦2.13bn was left untouched in a First Bank account for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis.

However, Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Law Mefor, rejected the claim in a statement on Wednesday.

Mefor said the account identified by Obi was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account and not an ecological fund account.

According to him, the state government obtained a certified printout of the account and claimed that “from 2011 when the account was opened until date, there has never been any such amount—whether as inflow or balance—in the account.”

Obi had 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.”

The latest exchange has intensified the dispute over the financial record of Obi’s administration as the former governor prepares for the 2027 presidential election under the Nigeria Democratic Congress.