The Anambra State Government has challenged former governor and Nigeria Democratic Congress presidential candidate Peter Obi to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race, accusing him of failing to honour key promises on debt and timely payment of workers’ salaries.
In a statement posted on its official X account on Tuesday, the state’s New Media Office asked: “When will Peter Obi quit presidential campaign?”
The government recalled that Obi had vowed to quit the presidential race if it was proven that he left Anambra in debt. It also noted that, while serving as governor, he had pledged to resign if workers were not paid on time.
Officials claimed he broke both promises and left office in 2014 with heavier arrears.The post was accompanied by a letter dated April 25, 2006, allegedly signed by Chuks Iloegbunam, then Chief of Staff to Obi.
Titled “GUBERNATORIAL PREROGATIVE,” the letter made a special appeal to Obi to settle salary arrears owed to workers of the Anambra State Water Corporation. It noted that the corporation’s monthly salary bill stood at about ₦15 million and that its workers had last been paid in February.
The letter referenced Obi’s campaign manifesto pledge to resign “if there is any case where workers are not paid as and when due,” and urged him to rectify the situation.
In a follow-up post, the state government stated that “Peter Obi’s former Chief of Staff, Iloegbunam berated him.”
The development forms part of an ongoing dispute between the administration of Governor Charles Soludo and Obi over the financial position of the state when the former governor left office in March 2014.
On 17 September, the state government, through Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation Dr Law Mefor, released a detailed statement titled “Gov Peter Obi and Record of Public Debt in Anambra: Facts Beyond Propaganda and Lies.”
It alleged that Obi left outstanding external loans as well as salary, pension and gratuity arrears.
The outstanding balance of eight external borrowings contracted during Obi’s administration stood at ₦127.4 billion as of June 30, 2026, at the official exchange rate, according to the government.
Mefor said Obi contracted $123.77 million in external debt for projects including malaria control, erosion management, education and healthcare, with the current government continuing to service the loans through monthly deductions from the state’s federal allocation.
The commissioner further stated that Obi left verified salary, gratuity and pension arrears for retired teachers and staff of the Water Corporation.
He also dismissed Obi’s claim of leaving more than ₦2.13 billion in an ecological fund account at First Bank, UNIZIK branch, Awka, saying the account was an Internally Generated Revenue, Consolidated Revenue Account and had never held such a sum.Obi had earlier rejected the government’s claims.
In a statement, he insisted he left office without unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities or obligations to contractors whose jobs had been processed and certified.
He said his administration cleared more than ₦35 billion in historical gratuities and arrears, and vowed to stop campaigning for the 2027 presidency if the state government could produce evidence that he left debts or owed any contractor.
Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga subsequently challenged Obi to honour his pledge and quit the race, saying the Anambra government had confronted him with facts and figures.
Obi’s media aide, Idris Zekeri Jnr, described the Presidency’s intervention as that of a “meddlesome interloper” and said a team of former officials who worked with Obi was preparing a detailed response.
The dispute over Anambra’s finances at the end of Obi’s tenure has periodically resurfaced since the transition to his successor, Willie Obiano, and has intensified as the 2027 presidential contest approaches.
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