The Anambra State Government has released details of loans it said remained outstanding after Peter Obi left office as governor in March 2014, while challenging the former governor to explain the whereabouts of an alleged N2.13 billion ecological fund.
The government also rejected Obi’s claim that his administration left the state without outstanding debts, salary arrears, pension obligations or gratuity liabilities.
In a statement issued on Wednesday by the Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Law Mefor, the state government said Obi’s claims about the state’s debt profile were not supported by its records.
According to Mefor, eight external loans obtained during or inherited by Obi’s administration had a combined outstanding balance of $92.35 million as of June 30, 2026. The government put the naira equivalent at N127.37 billion.
The loans, according to the statement, were tied to projects involving malaria control, erosion management, healthcare, education, agricultural development, community development and other areas.
The government said the original value of the eight facilities was about $123.77 million.
Among the loans listed was a $48.33 million additional financing facility for the Malaria Control Booster Project, with $37.34 million still outstanding as of June 30, 2026.
It also listed a $37.89 million Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project loan, of which $34.86 million remained outstanding.
Mefor said the current administration had continued to service the outstanding facilities.
“Evidently, HE Peter Obi borrowed for malaria, erosion control, education, healthcare, etc. So far, this government pays hundreds of millions of Naira every month to service these debts and we are not complaining,” he said.
The commissioner said the state government did not consider borrowing inherently wrong, noting that governments could legitimately obtain loans for viable projects and human-capital development.
He said the issue was whether the loans and expenditure could be properly accounted for.
The statement also disputed Obi’s claim that he left office without owing salaries, pensions and gratuities.
Obi had said his administration cleared more than N35 billion in historical gratuities and arrears and left office without owing salaries, pensions, gratuities or contractors for duly executed and certified projects.
He had also challenged anyone with evidence to the contrary to produce it, saying, “If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning.”
However, Mefor claimed that the current administration inherited and cleared about N22 billion in gratuity arrears owed to retired state and local government employees and teachers.
The government also alleged that workers of the defunct Anambra State Water Corporation had outstanding salary arrears that remained unresolved during Obi’s tenure.
According to the commissioner, the current administration negotiated a settlement and had already paid the first two instalments under an agreed three-instalment arrangement.
Mefor further alleged that some primary school teachers had outstanding salary, pension and gratuity arrears dating back to the administration of former governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju.
He said Obi’s administration had verified 16 months of salary arrears and agreed to pay them in instalments but paid only five months.
“This administration has set up a committee headed by the Head of Service to finalise a new verification for us to pay,” he said.
The commissioner directly challenged Obi’s claim that he left office without outstanding liabilities.
“So, Your Excellency, you owed salaries, pensions and gratuities. Many of these people are still alive and can testify,” Mefor said.
The most contentious issue in the latest exchange is Obi’s claim that he left more than N2.13 billion in an account belonging to the state as an ecological fund.
Obi had identified the account as First Bank account number 2018779464 and said the money was released shortly before the end of his tenure to address the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis.
He said he deliberately left the money untouched for his successor because it was earmarked for a specific project and because government was a continuum.
The Anambra Government, however, said it obtained a certified statement of the account and found no evidence that N2.13 billion was ever deposited into it.
Mefor said the account cited by Obi was not an ecological fund account but an internally generated revenue consolidated account.
“First, the account is an Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) Consolidated Revenue Account, and NOT an ecological fund account,” he said.
“Second, from 2011 when the account was opened until date, there has never been any such amount—whether as inflow or balance—in the account.”
The commissioner challenged Obi to explain where the money was allegedly kept if it was not in the account he identified.
“Since HE Peter Obi raised the issue and admitted that his government received such an amount and it is evident that no such an amount ever entered into the account that he cited, it behoves on HE Peter Obi to tell us where exactly his government kept the money,” Mefor said.
The state government also disputed Obi’s claim that his administration left more than N75 billion in savings for subsequent governments.
Mefor described the figure as “nebulous creative accounting” and said the claim had previously been disputed.
The statement, however, did not provide a detailed breakdown of the alleged N75 billion savings.
The latest exchange has renewed the dispute over Anambra State’s financial position when Obi handed over power to former governor Willie Obiano in March 2014.
Obi has maintained that his administration cleared substantial inherited liabilities and left the state in a financially stable position, while the current administration says records of outstanding loans and arrears contradict that account.
The dispute comes as Obi, now the presidential candidate of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), prepares for the 2027 general elections.
The Anambra Government said its response was intended to place its account of the state’s financial records on the public record.
Mefor said the government would rely on official records to support its position on the disputed figures.
