NEWS
APC Campaign Council Challenges Peter Obi Over Anambra Liabilities, Demands Withdrawal From 2027 Race
The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council has challenged Peter Obi to account for financial liabilities allegedly incurred during his eight-year tenure as governor of Anambra State, asking him to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race if he cannot disprove the claims.
The latest confrontation follows fresh disclosures by the Anambra State Government concerning external loans it says were contracted during Obi’s administration. The figures have reopened a longstanding political dispute over the financial condition of Anambra when Obi handed over power in March 2014.
The APC Presidential Campaign Council’s spokesman, Dele Alake, who is also the Minister of Solid Minerals, made the demand in a statement issued on Monday, September 21, 2026.
According to Alake, Obi has repeatedly presented his administration as financially prudent and has challenged those questioning his record to provide evidence that he left the state with outstanding liabilities.
The campaign council said the latest records released by the Anambra Government have now brought renewed attention to that claim.
According to the state government, Obi’s administration contracted external loans totalling $123.77 million. Eight external borrowing facilities linked to projects covering healthcare, education, erosion control, malaria intervention and other development programmes were reportedly still being serviced after Obi left office.
The Anambra Government put the outstanding balance on the facilities at $92.35 million as of June 30, 2026, equivalent to approximately ₦127.4 billion based on the exchange rate used in the state’s calculation.
The loans reportedly covered projects including the Malaria Control Booster Project, Third National Fadama Development Project, Health System Development Project, State Education Programme Investment Project, Community and Social Development Project, Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project and Value Chain Development Project.
The disclosure has intensified the disagreement between Obi and the Anambra State Government over the financial legacy of his administration.
Obi has consistently rejected the allegation that he left Anambra with unpaid financial obligations. In an earlier response, he said his administration inherited historical arrears and worked systematically to clear them.
“We systematically liquidated historical gratuities and arrears dating back several years, amounting to over ₦35 billion,” Obi said.
He further maintained that his administration left no outstanding salaries, pensions or gratuities when it handed over power.
“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,” he said.
Obi also issued a direct challenge to anyone who could establish otherwise.
“If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning,” he said.
That statement has now become a central point in the APC campaign council’s latest demand, with the council arguing that the loan records released by the Anambra Government constitute evidence that financial obligations remained after Obi left office.
The council, however, acknowledged that borrowing itself was not necessarily improper when funds were used for legitimate development projects. Its contention is that the existence of the outstanding facilities conflicts with Obi’s repeated assertion that he handed over Anambra without a debt burden.
“Borrowing is not injudicious if used for development.
“But for a man who prides himself on being austere and has frequently claimed he left the state with a clean bill of health, the revelations confirmed what has long been held,” the APC PCC said.
The Anambra Government has similarly maintained that its objection is not to borrowing for development, but to the description of the state as having been left without outstanding loan obligations.
Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Law Mefor, said deductions were still being made from the state’s monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee revenue to service some of the loans linked to previous administrations.
“First and foremost, a loan is a loan, and whether it is sovereign or not, even an interest-free loan is still a loan,” Mefor said in a television interview.
Another major area of disagreement is the alleged ₦2.13 billion ecological fund which Obi said he left untouched for his successor.
Obi said the money was released shortly before he left office and was intended to address the erosion crisis in Oko and Umuchiana. He maintained that he deliberately refrained from spending it because the funds were tied to a specific purpose.
According to the former governor, the money remained in a First Bank account when he handed over power. He also said the funds were separate from more than ₦75 billion in savings which he claimed his administration left behind.
The Anambra Government disputed that account.
Mefor said the account identified by Obi was not an ecological fund account but an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account.
According to the commissioner, the state obtained a certified statement of the account and found no record of the alleged ₦2.13 billion balance or an inflow corresponding to the amount from the time the account was opened in 2011 to date.
The disagreement over the alleged ecological fund has consequently become another flashpoint in the broader dispute over Obi’s financial record in office.
The APC Presidential Campaign Council also revisited an earlier controversy concerning salaries owed to workers of the Anambra State Water Corporation.
Alake cited a memorandum dated April 25, 2006, which he said was written by Obi’s then Chief of Staff, Chuks Ileogbunam.
The memo reportedly appealed to the governor to address a monthly salary obligation of ₦15 million owed to Water Corporation workers.
The campaign council used the document to question Obi’s earlier pledge that he would resign if workers were not paid as and when due. The APC argued that the alleged existence of salary arrears conflicted with Obi’s public claims regarding his record in office.
The council also criticised Obi over a recent solidarity visit to an individual facing an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission trial, using the development to raise broader questions about the former governor’s political positions on transparency and accountability.
The renewed controversy comes as the 2027 political contest begins to sharpen around the records and policy claims of prospective presidential contenders.
For the APC Presidential Campaign Council, the central issue is now Obi’s previous pledge to withdraw from the presidential contest if it is established that he left Anambra with financial liabilities.
The council therefore called on the former governor to honour that pledge if the claims contained in the state government’s records are established.
“Indeed, if Peter Obi has any honour, he must resign from the 2027 presidential race forthwith, in keeping with his promise to end his run if it is proven that his administration left behind liabilities in Anambra,” the council said.
The controversy remains a matter of competing claims: the Anambra Government and APC campaign council point to outstanding external loan facilities and other alleged liabilities, while Obi maintains that his administration cleared inherited obligations and handed over the state without unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities or certified contractor debts.