The Presidency has challenged former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race if claims that he left the state without outstanding debts are proven false.
Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, issued the challenge on Wednesday amid an escalating dispute between Obi and the Anambra State Government over the financial liabilities allegedly left by his administration.
Onanuga said Obi had previously claimed that he left Anambra without outstanding debt and pledged to stop campaigning if anyone could prove otherwise. He argued that the state government had now presented figures alleging unpaid obligations to workers, pensioners, contractors and other creditors.
The dispute intensified after Obi denied claims that his administration left behind liabilities, including a ₦2 billion ecological fund. The former governor maintained that his administration cleared more than ₦35 billion in historical gratuities and arrears and left office without unpaid salaries, pensions or gratuities.
Obi also disputed the state government’s account of the ecological fund, saying more than ₦2.13 billion had been left untouched in a First Bank account for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis.
However, Anambra Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Law Mefor, rejected Obi’s explanation, saying the account he referenced was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account rather than an ecological fund account.
Mefor said a certified account printout obtained by the state government showed that the alleged ₦2.13 billion was neither credited to nor held in the account from its opening in 2011 to date.
Onanuga subsequently asked Obi to honour his earlier pledge to stop campaigning if the claims about his record in Anambra were established.
