Anambra Govt Questions Peter Obi's Savings Claims

The Anambra State Government has said Peter Obi, the 2027 presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), does not deserve praise for saving $150 million in the state’s treasury before leaving office as governor in 2014.

The Commissioner for Information in Anambra, Law Mefor, shared this in a statement on Saturday. This was in response to Mr Obi’s claim of saving over $150 million during a recent interview on Arise News.

Mr Obi was governor of Anambra State from 2006 to 2014.

In the Saturday statement, Mr Mefor said the state government is not arguing against Mr Obi’s $150 million savings. But he said the former governor showed “an uncomfortable lack of understanding of the purpose of government.”

The information commissioner argued that Mr Obi should not have saved money when there were many projects his administration needed to do to better the lives of the people in the state.

“Government exists to improve the security and welfare of the people, and not to save money and earn interest.

“It would be an irresponsible and incompetent government that would tax even poor market women and save that money in banks to earn interest, while millions of its people fall into poverty and insecurity,” he said.

He also claimed it did not make any “social or economic sense” for Mr Obi’s administration to collect taxes from “impoverished residents” and save the money in bank accounts for interests, while many residents faced “dire poverty with rising insecurity, decayed infrastructure, and failing public health and educational systems.”

The official further claimed that under Mr Obi, Anambra State had “no pipe-borne water, no power plant, no airport, no government house/lodge, with over 900 active gully erosion sites.”

He said: “For an underdeveloped society like ours, wisely investing the so-called ‘savings’ in human capital and infrastructure would bring better social and economic benefits than the small financial returns, ‘interest income’, mentioned by Obi in his interview.”

Mr Mefor argued that no other governor saved that amount of money because no leader in “his right senses” would do so when there were “huge challenges” that Mr Obi should have solved with the funds.

He added that making such savings amid “acute misery” might “earn temporary emotional applause” but it was “certainly an unfortunate economic argument.”

The commissioner also said that Mr Obi, in the interview, blamed his successor Mr Obiano for spending the funds “instead of leaving them to earn bank interest.”

“Well, his successor spent the money and millions of people that his (Obi’s) government threw into poverty were pulled out of poverty and insecurity improved significantly until the ‘unknown gunmen’ caused trouble in the South-east from 2021,” he said, adding that Mr Obiano used the saved funds to build an airport and other projects.

But a review of the interview by PREMIUM TIMES showed that Mr Obi did not specifically say Mr Obiano spent the funds.

“If they (successive administrations) just kept that money ($150 million) that I left and used the income to pay the loan, they would have finished paying it (the alleged debt) now, with the capital, $150 million still remaining, and still giving Anambra State $10 million every year,” Mr Obi said in the interview.

Mr Mefor insisted that despite Mr Obi’s denial, his administration took eight external loans between 2007 and 2013, totaling $123.7 million, with $92.35 million still owed as of June 30, 2026.

The commissioner also questioned the financial details in Mr Obi’s handover letter, which was given to the previous administration.

He claimed that while the asset part of the financial statement in the handover letter included funds for incoming administrations, it hid the liabilities.

“Curiously, the Handover Note never mentioned that his government had awarded and signed valid contracts for 101 roads, totaling 779 kilometers, with outstanding liabilities of N127 billion as of that date,” he said.

He added that although the asset side included N10 billion reportedly for “approved refund” by the federal government stated as part of the “net balance,” the money “was not received before he (Mr Obi) left office and no one is sure that the ‘approved refund’ ever came.”

“The same bogus net balances included balances in MDAs’ accounts, mostly money that was already spent from the consolidated revenue fund or not available for spending,” he said.

Mr Mefor again challenged Mr Obi on his claim of leaving N2.13 billion Ecological Funds in the state’s treasury, asking the former governor to show where the funds were kept.

Mr Obi had said his administration received the ecological funds from the federal government about three months before he left office.

He claimed that the funds, meant for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis, were kept in First Bank account number: 2018779464 for the then-incoming government of Mr Obiano.

But Mr Mefor said the account mentioned by Mr Obi was not for ecological funds but for Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

He added that this account did not contain the N2.13 billion at any time.

“This is according to the bank statement we obtained from the bank,” he said, adding that the state government still wants to know where the funds are.

The commissioner said that the bank, in its letter of September 16, 2026, confirmed that the balance on that IGR account as of March 17, 2014, when Mr Obi left office, “was not close to N2 billion.”

“Since the money is not in the First Bank account as claimed, where is it? Or is the money actually missing? This question remains unanswered,” he stated.