The Anambra State Government has renewed its challenge to former governor Peter Obi over his pledge to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race if it is established that he left the state with outstanding financial obligations.
The latest development followed the release of a 2006 letter which the state government said showed that workers of the Anambra State Water Corporation were owed salaries during Obi’s tenure.
The government, in a post on its official X account on Tuesday, asked, “When will Peter Obi quit presidential campaign?”
It recalled Obi’s reported pledge to withdraw from the presidential contest if it was proven that he left Anambra State in debt.
The state government also cited a separate pledge allegedly made by Obi while he was governor that he would resign if workers were not paid their salaries as and when due.
To support its position, the government published a letter dated April 25, 2006, purportedly signed by Chuks Iloegbunam, who was then Obi’s Chief of Staff.
The letter, titled “GUBERNATORIAL PREROGATIVE,” contained an appeal to Obi to settle salary arrears owed workers of the state-owned Water Corporation.
According to the document, the corporation had a monthly salary bill of about N15 million and its workers had last been paid in February.
The letter also referred to Obi’s campaign manifesto, which reportedly contained a commitment that he would resign if workers were not paid as and when due.
It appealed to the then governor to include the Water Corporation among government agencies receiving regular subventions to prevent its workers from repeatedly seeking his intervention over unpaid salaries.
However, the timing of the letter is significant. Obi was sworn in as governor on March 17, 2006, meaning he had been in office for only about five weeks when the document was dated April 25.
It therefore does not, by itself, establish when the salary arrears originated or whether they were inherited from the previous administration.
The state government subsequently claimed in another post that Iloegbunam had criticised Obi over the matter.
Fresh debt controversy
The latest exchange is part of an escalating dispute between the Soludo administration and Obi over the financial position of Anambra State when the former governor left office in March 2014.
The state government recently alleged that Obi’s administration contracted $123.77 million in external loans and left eight outstanding borrowing facilities.
It said the outstanding balance of the loans stood at about N127.4 billion as of June 30, 2026, based on the official exchange rate.
The government has also alleged that Obi left salary, pension and gratuity arrears, including liabilities involving former Water Corporation workers.
Obi has rejected the allegations, maintaining that he left office without outstanding salaries, pensions, gratuities or unpaid obligations to contractors whose projects had been duly executed and certified.
He said his administration cleared more than N35 billion in historical gratuity and salary arrears and challenged anyone with evidence that he left debts to present it. Obi also said he would stop campaigning for the 2027 presidency if the claims against his administration were established.
The controversy has also drawn comments from the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, which has separately challenged Obi over the debt claims and his pledge concerning the 2027 presidential race.
The dispute over Obi’s financial record in Anambra has intensified in recent weeks, with the former governor and the Soludo administration presenting conflicting accounts of the state’s debts, arrears and financial position at the end of his tenure.
