Anambra dares Obi to quit presidential race, releases salary arrears document

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The Anambra State Government has challenged former governor Peter Obi to withdraw from 2027 presidential race, accusing him of breaking key campaign promises on debt and timely payment of workers’ salaries.

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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?”

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The government recalled that Obi had vowed to quit the presidential race if it was proven that he left Anambra in debt.

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It also recalled that Obi had pledged, while governor, to resign if workers were not paid on time.

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The state government claimed that he broke both promises.

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It said, “He (Obi) vowed to quit the presidential race if proven he left Anambra in debt.

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“As governor, he vowed to resign if workers weren’t paid on time. He broke both. He left office in 2014 with heavier arrears.”

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The government accompanied the post with a letter dated April 25, 2006, and allegedly signed by Chuks Iloegbunam, then Chief of Staff to Obi.

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PUNCH Online cannot immediately confirm the letter. Efforts are ongoing to get Iloegbunam’s reaction.

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The letter, titled “GUBERNATORIAL PREROGATIVE,” made a “special appeal” to Obi to settle salary arrears owed to workers of the Anambra State Water Corporation.

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It listed three reasons for the appeal, including that the corporation’s monthly salary bill stood at about N15m and that its workers had last been paid in February.

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The letter read, “Since it is Your Excellency’s unchanging desire to achieve a better future for our children and children’s children, please, Sir, bear in mind that officials of the Water Corporation also have children who are looking to your compassionate leadership. If the President listens with compassion to your appeals on behalf of the children of Anambra State, I am 200 percent sure that you will hearken to the cries of the children whose parents work for the Water Corporation and end their ordeal. Thank you most sincerely for that.

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“The monthly salary of the Water Corporation comes to something around N15 million every month. Because you have a most busy schedule, I appeal to you to please include the Water Corporation in the league of Government parastatals that are paid through subventions. In this way, the workers will not come to Your Excellency’s office every month to distract your attention on account of unpaid salaries.”

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The letter specifically referenced Obi’s campaign manifesto, which pledged that the governor would resign “if there is any case where workers are not paid as and when due.”

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“Your Excellency, Water Corporation workers were last paid in February. Please rectify this anomaly so that you can forge ahead with the good work you are doing,” it concluded.

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In a follow-up post, the state government said, “Peter Obi’s former Chief of Staff, Iloegbunam berated him.”

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The latest development is 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.

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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.”n

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The government alleged alleged that Obi left outstanding external loans, as well as salary, pension and gratuity arrears.

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It said the outstanding balance of eight external borrowings contracted during Obi’s administration stood at N127.4bn as of June 30, 2026, at the official exchange rate.

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Mefor said Obi contracted $123.77 million in external debt for projects including malaria control, erosion management, education and healthcare. The current government continues to service the loans with hundreds of millions of naira deducted monthly from the state’s federal allocation.

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The commissioner further stated that Obi left verified salary, gratuity and pension arrears for retired teachers and staff of the Water Corporation.

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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 in question was an Internally Generated Revenue–Consolidated Revenue Account and had never held such a sum.

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Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, had earlier rejected the government’s claims.n

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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.

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He also vowed to stop campaigning for the 2027 presidency if the state government could produce evidence that he left debts or owed any contractor.

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The 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.

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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 to the substantive issues raised by the Anambra State Government.

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The dispute over the financial position of Anambra State at the end of Obi’s tenure in 2014 has periodically resurfaced since the transition to his successor, Willie Obiano, and has gained fresh intensity as the 2027 presidential contest approaches.

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