Olushola Omogbehin
Following the allegation that the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Peter Obi, left Anambra State as a governor with outstanding liabilities, the presidency has called on him to honourably stop campaigning and end his ambition of becoming the resident of Nigeria.
This was disclosed by the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, on Wednesday in a post on X.
In the ongoing dispute between Obi and the Anambra State Government over the state’s financial obligations, Onanuga said Obi had previously claimed that he left Anambra with a clean debt record and had pledged to end his presidential campaign if the claim was disproved.
“Peter Obi claimed he left Anambra with a clean slate of debt and even threatened to quit the presidential race if his claims were proven otherwise.
“Now, the Anambra government has confronted him with facts and figures showing he owed Water Corporation workers, teachers, and pension and gratuities, and had also borrowed for frivolous things,” Onanuga said.
Onanuga added and asked: “The ball is back in his court. Will he follow through on his threat by quitting the race?”
Reacting and still maintaining that his administration left no outstanding salaries, pensions, gratuities and contractor liabilities, Obi said his administration cleared more than ₦35bn in historical gratuities and arrears before handing over power in 2014.
Also disagreeing with the state government’s account of an alleged ₦2bn ecological fund, Obi said more than ₦2.13bn had been left untouched in a First Bank account for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion-control project.
However, according to the Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation of the state, Law Mefor, the First Bank account identified by Obi was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account and not an ecological fund account.
Mefor said the records showed that the account had never contained the amount claimed by Obi, stating that “from 2011 when the account was opened until date, there has never been any such amount whether as inflow or balance in the account.”
Earlier had said that “If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning.”
