An affidavit sworn by Peter Obi at the Supreme Court Registry nine years ago has resurfaced which confirms the sqeaky clean image of the former Anambra State Governor and now Presidential candidate of the NDC in next year's elections. The development comes amid controversies over the finances of Anambra State during Obi’s tenure as governor. The document, dated September 26, 2017, contains Obi’s sworn account of money he said his administration left behind, his government's spending and outstanding ecological funds, investments, and other financial matters as at time of his leaving office in March 2014. The emergence of the document clears the air as the Anambra State Government and Obi trade conflicting claims over whether Obi's administration left debts that successive governments have continued to service. The affidavit was sworn to at the court’s registry in Abuja in response to questions raised in 2017 by the South-East chapter of the Civil Liberties Organisation. It was published by News Express on Saturday, September 26, 2026. In the affidavit, Obi maintained that his administration left about ₦75 billion in cash and investments for Anambra State, averring that the amount included $156 million in foreign-currency investments placed with three Nigerian banks. Obi had also sworn that his government had set aside about ₦2.14 billion from the Federal Government’s Ecological Fund, approximately ₦4.91 billion in SURE-P funds, and several billions of naira for education and Millennium Development Goals programmes. Obi rejected allegations concerning excessive security-vote spending, saying total expenditure under that heading during his eight years in office was below ₦25 billion and included spending on vehicles and infrastructure for security agencies. The old affidavit has become of public relevance given the administration of Governor Chukwuma Soludo's claims that external facilities associated with projects undertaken during Obi’s tenure had a contracted value of $123.77 million with the state government asserting that about $92.35 million remained outstanding as of June 30, 2026. Obi has consistently disputed those figures. Speaking Friday September 2, he said the facilities largely involved World Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development programmes negotiated by the Federal Government and accessed by participating states. “As Governor of Anambra State, I did not approach any financial institution to borrow funds or issue a bond on behalf of the state,” Obi maintained. He acknowledged that the State had repayment obligations under some multilateral programmes but argued that the total approved value of such programmes should not be described as debt personally incurred by his administration. Obi also cited Debt Management Office figures which, he said, placed Anambra’s external debt at about $30 million when he left office in March 2014. The Anambra government however asserts that financial obligations connected to projects initiated during Obi’s tenure continued beyond his administration. It has also released documents relating to other liabilities, including salary arrears, as part of its effort to challenge Obi’s repeated assertion that he handed over a debt-free state and some news outlets reported that the government produced records concerning ₦363.38 million in arrears involving two defunct state agencies. The surfacing of the affidavit at this time seems to support the NDC candidate's world renown reputation as a prudent financial manager of respurces.

Posted: 2weeks ago

Author: Editor in Chief

Current date: 18 October 2026