Anambra Govt. Challenges Obi Over 2006 Debt Pledge

The Anambra State Government has challenged former governor Peter Obi to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race, accusing him of breaking key campaign promises on debt and timely payment of workers’ salaries.

In a statement posted on its official X account on Tuesday, the state’s New Media Office asked, “When will Peter Obi quit the presidential campaign?”

The government recalled that Obi had vowed to quit the presidential race if it was proven that he left Anambra in debt.

It also recalled that Obi had pledged, while governor, to resign if workers were not paid on time.

The state government claimed that he broke both promises.

It said, “He (Obi) vowed to quit the presidential race if proven he left Anambra in debt.

“As governor, he vowed to resign if workers weren’t paid on time. He broke both. He left office in 2014 with heavier arrears.”

The government accompanied the post with a letter dated April 25, 2006, and allegedly signed by Chuks Iloegbunam, then Chief of Staff to Obi.

PUNCH Online cannot immediately confirm the letter. Efforts are ongoing to get Iloegbunam’s reaction, ABNTV reports.

The letter, titled “GUBERNATORIAL PREROGATIVE,” made a “special appeal” to Obi to settle salary arrears owed to workers of the Anambra State Water Corporation.

It listed three reasons for the appeal, including that the corporation’s monthly salary bill stood at about N15m and that its workers had last been paid in February.

The letter read, “Since it is Your Excellency’s unchanging desire to achieve a better future for our children and children’s children, please, Sir, bear in mind that officials of the Water Corporation also have children who are looking to your compassionate leadership. If the President listens with compassion to your appeals on behalf of the children of Anambra State, I am 200 percent sure that you will hearken to the cries of the children whose parents work for the Water Corporation and end their ordeal. Thank you most sincerely for that.

“The monthly salary of the Water Corporation comes to something around N15 million every month. Because you have a most busy schedule, I appeal to you to please include the Water Corporation in the league of Government parastatals that are paid through subventions. In this way, the workers will not come to Your Excellency’s office every month to distract your attention on account of unpaid salaries.”

The letter specifically referenced Obi’s campaign manifesto, which pledged that the governor would resign “if there is any case where workers are not paid as and when due.”