Obi’s Debt Storm Deepens as Okonkwo Says: ‘I Was Misled’

Obi’s Debt Storm Deepens as Okonkwo Says: ‘I Was Misled’

 

 

The controversy over the financial record of former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi has taken a fresh turn after his former 2023 campaign spokesman, Kenneth Okonkwo, said he was “misled” when he previously defended the former governor against claims that his administration left debts and other financial obligations behind.

 

Okonkwo made the disclosure on Sunday Politics, a programme on Television Continental (TVC), saying he could no longer repeat some of the claims he made in Obi’s defence after considering fresh information presented by the Anambra State Government.

 

The development has added a new dimension to the ongoing disagreement between Obi and the Anambra State Government over loans, salary arrears and other financial obligations allegedly connected to his administration.

 

Recalling his position during the 2023 presidential campaign, Okonkwo said he had confidently told Nigerians that Obi left office without debts, unpaid salaries, pensions or gratuities and challenged people to verify his claims.

 

However, he said his position had changed after new information emerged.

 

“You know me, I’m a very passionate person in whatever I believe in. Let me tell you because I was misled,” Okonkwo said.

 

He added that he was not prepared to continue defending a position if new facts showed that his previous understanding was incorrect.

 

“I’m not a man that stands on my own misunderstanding. When I see the facts, I agree,” he said.

 

Okonkwo specifically referred to claims by the Anambra State Government that Obi’s administration obtained eight loans and that workers at the state-owned water corporation were owed salaries and arrears.

 

“The fact is Anambra State Government said he borrowed eight loans. The fact is that Anambra State said that at the water corporation, he was owing workers there, all the salaries, all the arrears. I cannot say the same thing that I said about Peter Obi in 2023,” he said.

 

The comments came against the backdrop of an escalating dispute between Obi and the Anambra State Government over the state’s debt profile.

 

The state government has said eight external financing facilities associated with projects undertaken during Obi’s tenure had a combined contracted value of $123.77 million, with $92.35 million outstanding as of June 30, 2026.

 

Obi has rejected the description of the entire $123.77 million figure as debt he left behind, arguing that the figure includes different categories of multilateral development financing. He has also cited Debt Management Office figures in arguing that Anambra’s external debt stood at about $30 million when he left office in March 2014.

 

Another major point of disagreement is Obi’s claim that his administration left about N2.1 billion in an ecological fund for Anambra State.

 

While Obi has maintained that the fund existed and was left for the state, the Anambra Government has disputed the claim and said it has no evidence of the ecological fund in the form alleged by the former governor.

 

The state government has also released documents relating to N363.38 million in salary arrears, which it says were inherited from the Obi administration. The issue has become part of the broader argument over whether Obi left outstanding financial obligations when he handed over power to Willie Obiano in March 2014.

 

Okonkwo also revisited his previous defence of Obi’s family over claims concerning an expensive wristwatch allegedly worn by a son of President Bola Tinubu.

 

He recalled that he had previously gone on television to defend Obi’s family and stake his reputation on the position he took at the time.

 

But he questioned whether he could make the same assertion today, further illustrating the extent of his stated change in position.

 

Explaining his approach ahead of the 2027 election, Okonkwo used courtroom language to describe the difference between his role in 2023 and his current political position.

 

“That’s why I said in 2023, I campaigned for them as the examination in chief. In 2027, it’s going to be a cross-examination,” he said.

 

Okonkwo is now a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and spokesman for the presidential campaign council of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, the ADC’s 2027 presidential candidate. He served as a spokesman for Obi during the 2023 presidential campaign.

 

Obi, meanwhile, remains at the centre of the political and financial controversy, with his record as Anambra governor increasingly becoming a subject of scrutiny as the 2027 political season approaches.

 

The latest comments by Okonkwo are unlikely to end the dispute, as the central questions over the nature of the loans, outstanding obligations and the financial position of Anambra at the end of Obi’s tenure remain subjects of competing claims by the former governor and the state government.

 

Obi’s Debt Storm Deepens as Okonkwo Says: ‘I Was Misled’