Obi: I paid all debts due before leaving office

AWKA — The presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, Peter Obi, has rejected claims that his administration left outstanding debts for the Anambra State Government to repay, saying he settled all obligations due before handing over power in 2014.

Obi made the clarification in a video from the Voice of Ndi Anambra Podcast circulated on Monday, while responding to a claim by the state government that deductions from its monthly federal allocation were still being made to service loans incurred under previous administrations.

Anambra Commissioner for Finance, Izuchukwu Okafor, had said on the podcast that the state was still servicing loans obtained during the administrations of Obi and his successor, Willie Obiano.

Obi, who governed Anambra from 2006 to 2014, disputed the claim, saying his administration did not leave unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities, suppliers or contractors whose claims had been properly processed.

“As at the day I left office, I was not owing any salary, pension, or gratuity that Anambra State Government is supposed to pay,” Obi said.

“I was not owing any supplier or contractor that had executed his job and his documents processed, not one. The day I left office; I paid what was due to be paid. I wasn’t owing any contractors.”

‘I left N2.1bn ecological fund’

The former governor also addressed the issue of an ecological fund which, he said, was in an account belonging to the state government when he left office.

Obi said the Federal Government had released the money about three months before the end of his administration for a specific erosion-control project.

“The day I left office, I had an account in the First Bank of Nigeria, a branch in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, an ecological fund account with a balance of about N2.1 billion,” he said.

According to him, the money was not included among the funds he left for general government expenditure because it was earmarked for a particular erosion project.

He said members of his administration had suggested that the money be spent before his departure, but he rejected the proposal, arguing that government was a continuum.

“My people were saying, ‘let’s expend this money’. But I kept telling them, government is a continuity and I want the person coming after me to succeed,” Obi said.

The former governor challenged anyone disputing his account to produce evidence from the bank records.

“I say it again, if you go to the account, I’m going to give you the account number. I have given you the bank and the branch. If you see anything contrary to the day I left office, I will stop campaigning,” he said.

Obi: Governors free to support Tinubu

Obi also addressed the political support being mobilised for President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 presidential election, saying state governors had the right to support whichever candidate they preferred.

He specifically said Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra and other governors were entitled to make their political choices.

“It’s about over 30 governors today supporting the president. And it is politics and their rights to support whoever they want,” Obi said.

The NDC presidential candidate said he was not asking governors to support him, but only demanding that the 2027 election be conducted freely and fairly.

“I’m not urging them to support me. I am only urging them to allow free, fair and credible elections. I’m talking to the people because they have only one vote,” he said.

Obi said the outcome of the election should ultimately be determined by voters rather than governors, recalling that he had contested the 2023 presidential election without having councillors or other elected officials in power.

“Today, it is still the same case. The only thing is I am campaigning to be the president of Nigeria,” he said.

“But it is the people of Nigeria that will decide, not the governors, unless they’re going to write the results or rig the election, which is what I’m preaching against.

“Let it be a free, fair and credible election. Whatever the people decide, I will respect it.”