Peter Obi Anambra Debt Row: Govt Lists ₦127.4bn Outstanding Loans
The controversy over the financial position of Anambra State at the end of Peter Obi’s administration has taken a fresh turn, with the state government releasing figures it says show that external loans contracted during his tenure remain outstanding more than a decade after he left office.
The administration of Governor Chukwuma Soludo said that as of June 30, 2026, the outstanding balance on external loans linked to Obi’s years in office stood at about ₦127.4 billion when converted at the official exchange rate.
Obi, who governed Anambra between 2006 and 2014, has disputed claims that he left the state with unpaid obligations, maintaining that his administration cleared debts due at the time and left substantial savings for its successor.
The latest figures were contained in a statement by the Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Dr Law Mefor, issued in response to Obi’s account of the state’s finances.
According to the government, Obi’s administration contracted about $123.77 million in external loans for various development programmes, with portions of those facilities still outstanding.
The state listed projects associated with the loans as including malaria control, health system development, education investment, community and social development, erosion and watershed management, and agricultural value-chain development.
The government further alleged that liabilities involving pensions, gratuities and salaries were inherited from Obi’s administration and earlier governments.
Mefor said the Soludo administration had cleared about ₦22 billion in inherited gratuity arrears but maintained that some legacy obligations remained.
The government also alleged that Obi’s administration verified 16 months of salary arrears involving primary school teachers but paid five months before leaving office.
Another major point of disagreement centres on Obi’s claim that he left more than ₦2.13 billion in an ecological fund account.
The Anambra government said it obtained what it described as a certified statement for the First Bank account identified by Obi and claimed that the account was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account rather than an ecological fund account.
It further claimed that the ₦2.13 billion cited by the former governor did not appear as either an inflow or balance in the account.
Obi had earlier rejected the allegations and challenged the state government to provide evidence that his administration left unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities or obligations to contractors whose jobs had been completed and properly processed.
The former governor also maintained that his administration left more than ₦75 billion in savings and investments when he handed over power in March 2014.
He went further by declaring that he would stop campaigning if evidence established that his account of the state’s finances was false.
The latest disclosures have therefore shifted the dispute from competing political statements towards questions over loan documentation, repayment records, bank statements and the classification of liabilities inherited by successive Anambra administrations.
With both sides presenting sharply different accounts, attention is now likely to focus on whether the figures released by the state government can be independently reconciled with Debt Management Office records, audited state accounts and other official financial documents.
The controversy comes as Obi remains a prominent opposition figure ahead of the 2027 general election, giving the dispute over his eight-year record as Anambra governor wider national political significance.
