OBI’S “I WILL STOP CAMPAIGNING” PLEDGE: ANAMBRA FIRES BACK WITH DEBT RECORDS

State Government Produces Loan Figures, Salary Arrears Claims, Bank Records Demands Former Governor Explain

The political battle between former Anambra State Governor and 2027 presidential candidate Peter Obi and the administration of Governor Chukwuma Soludo has escalated, with the state government producing financial records it says contradict Obi’s claim that he left office without outstanding liabilities.

Obi had challenged the Anambra Government to produce evidence that his administration left unpaid debts, salaries, pensions, gratuities or contractor obligations when he handed over power in March 2014.
“If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning,” Obi said in his response to claims by the state’s Commissioner for Finance, Izuchukwu Okafor.
The challenge has now triggered a fresh counter-offensive from the Soludo administration.
In a statement issued by Anambra Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Law Mefor, the government presented what it described as documentary evidence showing outstanding financial obligations connected to previous administrations, including the Obi years.

According to the state government, eight external loans associated with projects during or inherited by the Obi administration had a combined original value of $123.77 million, with $92.35 million still outstanding as of June 30, 2026.
The government said the loans covered projects involving malaria control, healthcare, education, erosion management, community development, agriculture and other areas.

It valued the outstanding balance at approximately ₦127.37 billion based on the exchange rate it cited.

The figures have become central to the dispute because Obi’s position was that he left Anambra without the type of outstanding obligations alleged by the current administration.

But the existence of an outstanding government loan does not, by itself, establish that every naira of the balance represented an unpaid personal liability of Obi at handover; the precise dates, borrowing arrangements, beneficiaries and responsibility of each administration remain material to the dispute.

The Soludo administration has also alleged that arrears involving workers of the defunct Water Corporation and primary-school teachers remained outstanding after Obi’s tenure.

The government says some of the liabilities subsequently became subject to court judgments and that it has been paying inherited gratuity and pension obligations.
Anambra officials specifically alleged that Obi’s administration verified 16 months of salary arrears relating to a category of primary-school teachers but paid only five months.
Obi, however, has maintained that his administration systematically cleared historical arrears amounting to more than ₦35 billion and left no outstanding salaries, pensions or gratuities at handover.

Perhaps the most specific part of the confrontation concerns the alleged ₦2.13 billion ecological fund.
Obi said the money was released shortly before he left office for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis and was deliberately left untouched for his successor. He identified a First Bank account and said the money remained there at handover.
The Anambra Government has now disputed that account.

According to Mefor, a certified statement obtained from First Bank shows that the account cited by Obi was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Account, rather than an ecological fund account.

The government further claims that its review of the account from its opening in 2011 showed no ₦2.13 billion balance or corresponding inflow.

It has consequently challenged Obi to explain where the money was held if it was not in the account he identified.

The dispute has therefore moved beyond the original allegation about loan repayments.
Obi has placed a clear condition on his own campaign: produce evidence that his administration left outstanding obligations, and he would stop campaigning.

The Anambra Government now says it has produced loan records, claims concerning salary and gratuity arrears, and bank documentation challenging Obi’s account of the ecological fund.

The former governor has yet to announce any withdrawal from the 2027 presidential race. Instead, his earlier position remains that the allegations against his administration are false and that the state government must establish them with credible evidence.

The Presidency has already seized on the controversy, with Special Adviser Bayo Onanuga publicly challenging Obi to honour his pledge if the government’s allegations are established.

For now, the central issue is no longer simply whether Anambra has outstanding debt.

It is more precise:
Which loans and arrears existed when Obi left office, who incurred them, who was legally responsible for them, what had already been paid, and what documentary evidence can conclusively establish the position as of March 17, 2014?

Until those questions are independently reconciled from the underlying DMO, bank, court and government records, both sides remain locked in a politically charged dispute over Anambra’s financial history.
But one fact is beyond dispute: Peter Obi himself made the “I will stop campaigning” pledge.
The records produced by Anambra have now put that pledge at the centre of the 2027 political conversation.