The presidency dares Peter Obi to quit the 2027 race over Anambra debt claims after Bayo Onanuga pointed to the state government’s figures
On Wednesday, 16 September 2026, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga challenged Nigeria Democratic Congress presidential candidate Peter Obi to leave the 2027 race if Anambra State’s account of debts from Peter Obi’s time as governor is correct.
Also read: Prove I Left Debt, I’ll Stop Campaigning — Peter Obi
Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate in 2023, had said on Tuesday that his administration left Anambra State without outstanding salary, pension or gratuity bills, that it cleared more than N35bn in old gratuities and arrears, and that more than N2.13bn for the Oko and Umuchiana erosion crisis was left untouched in a First Bank account. He also disputed claims about a N2bn ecological fund and other contractor liabilities.
“If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning,” Peter Obi said.
Bayo Onanuga posted on X that Peter Obi had claimed a clean debt slate and had threatened to quit if that claim fell. “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,” Bayo Onanuga wrote. “The ball is back in his court. Will he follow through on his threat by quitting the race?”
Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation Law Mefor issued a statement the same day for Governor Charles Soludo’s government.
Law Mefor said the account Peter Obi named was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account, not an ecological fund account.
The state said it had a certified printout and 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.”
Also read: Prove I Left Debt, I’ll Stop Campaigning — Peter Obi
The row is now a public test of Peter Obi’s pledge. Neither Bayo Onanuga nor Law Mefor published the full bank records in the posts quoted here, and Peter Obi has not withdrawn from the race.
