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Awka, Nigeria — September 16, 2026
The Anambra State Government has issued a detailed rebuttal of claims by former Governor Peter Obi regarding the state’s public debt and finances, alleging that a specific ₦2.13 billion ecological fund balance Obi says he left behind never existed in the bank account he cited.
In a press statement titled “Gov Peter Obi and Record of Public Debt in Anambra: Facts Beyond Propaganda and Lies,” signed by Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation Dr. Law Mefor, the state government said the response followed a viral post by Obi dismissing recent remarks by Commissioner for Finance Izuchukwu Okafor as “Phantom Debts and Ecological Loan Fallacy.”
The government’s four core claims
The statement laid out four main points of dispute:
On overall spending and debt: The government said Obi spent approximately $4.05 billion (about ₦5.4 trillion at current exchange rates) over his eight years in office and contracted $123.77 million in external debt, against which the state has paid billions of naira in debt servicing. It said eight distinct external loans taken under Obi remained outstanding as of his exit on March 17, 2014, with a combined outstanding balance of $92.35 million (₦127.37 billion) as of June 30, 2026. Loans listed included financing for malaria control, the Third National Fadama Development Project, health systems development, state education programme investment, community and social development, and the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project.
On salary, pension, and gratuity arrears: The government said it has cleared about ₦22 billion in inherited gratuity arrears owed to retired state and local government employees and teachers, and that legacy arrears tracing back to the Obi era still linger. It cited two specific categories: unresolved arrears owed to defunct Water Corporation staff, now under a negotiated settlement, and 16 months of verified and certified salary arrears owed to primary school teachers under the local government system, of which it said the Obi administration paid only five months before leaving office. It said a new committee, headed by the Head of Service, has been set up to finalise verification of the remaining arrears.
On the disputed ecological fund: This is the statement’s most pointed claim. The government said Obi’s claim of leaving a ₦2.13 billion balance in a specific First Bank account (No. 2018779464, UNIZIK Branch, Awka) — a figure Obi says relates to ecological funds — does not match its own review of a certified printout of that account. According to the statement, the account in question is an Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) Consolidated Revenue Account, not an ecological fund account, and no such amount, whether as an inflow or balance, has ever appeared in the account from its opening in 2011 to date. The government further noted that the finance commissioner’s original podcast remarks never mentioned any ₦2 billion ecological fund loan at all, suggesting Obi introduced the figure himself.
On the disputed ₦75 billion savings claim: The statement said the government did not wish to be drawn into what it called “nebulous creative accounting” behind Obi’s broader claim of leaving ₦75 billion in savings or investment — a figure it said the Obiano administration had “vigorously disputed” at the time.
The government said it remains focused on development delivery and pointed to what it described as ongoing challenges inherited from the Obi era, including a state left without functioning urban or rural water schemes, 78 of Anambra’s 179 communities (44%) still lacking any public primary school, and only about 27% of residents patronising public health institutions due to poor facility quality.
A dispute now three governors deep
Obi’s exit finances have now been disputed by two separate successor administrations, more than a decade apart. His immediate successor, Willie Obiano, first went public with his own competing figures in November 2015 — roughly 18 months after taking office — telling reporters that his administration had inherited just ₦9 billion in cash and ₦26 billion in near-cash assets, far below the ₦75 billion Obi has said he left behind. Obiano’s camp said at the time it had held back its account for a year and a half in the interest of party peace with Obi before deciding the record needed correcting.
The current dispute, under Governor Charles Soludo’s administration, was reignited earlier this month after Commissioner Okafor said on the government’s Voice of Ndi Anambra podcast that the state was still repaying loans and settling salary, gratuity, and pension arrears tracing back to both the Obi and Obiano administrations — a claim Obi rejected as “completely false,” prompting Monday’s formal rebuttal from Mefor’s office. Obi has said he provided certified account statements to Obiano directly at the 2014 handover, in the presence of the relevant banks’ managing directors, and has challenged anyone to disprove his figures, saying he would stop campaigning if they could.
Obi had not issued a fresh public response to Monday’s statement as of this writing.
