Anambra Govt To Obi: You Left N127.4bn Debt, Not N75bn Savings

The Anambra State Government has disputed former Governor Peter Obi’s claim that he left N2.13 billion in ecological funds before leaving office in 2014.

The government said the First Bank account number 2018779464 which Obi identified as the ecological fund account was not an ecological fund account and never contained such an amount.

The Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Law Mefor, stated this in a statement released on Wednesday titled “Gov Peter Obi and Record of Public Debt in Anambra: Facts Beyond Propaganda and Lies.”

Mefor said the government obtained a certified printout of the account from inception to date.

According to him, “The account is an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account, not an ecological fund account. From 2011 when the account was opened until date, there has never been any such amount — whether as inflow or balance — in the account.”

He challenged Obi to explain where the N2.13bn he claimed to have left was kept.

The response comes after Obi on Tuesday rejected claims by the Anambra Government that his administration left behind inherited debts including a N2bn ecological loan, contractor liabilities and unpaid salaries, gratuities and pensions.

Obi had said his administration liquidated historical gratuities and arrears dating back several years amounting to more than N35bn.

“At the point of handover, the state owed nothing in salaries, gratuities, or pensions, nor did we owe anything to any contractor for projects duly executed and certified,” Obi said.

On the ecological fund, Obi said the money was released barely three months before the end of his tenure for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis, but he refused to spend it, insisting it should be left for his successor because “government is a continuum.”

He said the money was left “100 per cent intact” in First Bank with balance of more than N2.13bn.

Obi had dared anyone to prove him wrong: “If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning.”

But Mefor also raised issues of debts allegedly inherited, saying eight external borrowings remained after Obi left office on March 17, 2014, with total balance of N127.4 billion as of June 30, 2026, at official exchange rate.

The loans listed include Malaria Control Booster Project, Third National Fadama Development Project, Health System Development Project II, State Education Programme Investment Project, Community and Social Development Project, Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project and Value Chain Development Project.

The commissioner also disputed Obi’s claim of not owing salaries and pensions, saying the Soludo administration cleared about N22bn in inherited gratuity arrears, but legacy arrears remain from Obi and earlier administrations, including retired teachers and Water Corporation staff.

He said salary arrears for Water Corporation workers lingered through Obi administration and were settled under Soludo with two of three instalments already paid.

“Obi administration verified/certified 16 months of salary arrears for primary school teachers but paid only five months,” Mefor added.

On Obi’s claim of leaving over N75bn in savings, Mefor said: “We will not engage in nebulous creative accounting. If there were N75 billion in savings, as claimed, where are the records?”