The Presidency has reacted to the ongoing dispute between former Anambra State Governor and presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Peter Obi, and the state government over the state’s debts and financial liabilities.

Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, in a post on X on Wednesday, said Obi had claimed to have left Anambra without debt and challenged him to follow through on his pledge to quit the presidential race if his claim was disproved.

Onanuga wrote, “Peter Obi claimed he left Anambra with a clean slate of debt and even threatened to quit the presidential race if his claims were proven otherwise.”

He added that the Anambra State Government had responded with claims concerning liabilities allegedly left by the former governor’s administration.

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,” Onanuga said.

“The ball is back in his court. Will he follow through on his threat by quitting the race?” he asked.

The reaction followed a fresh response by the Anambra State Government to Obi’s Tuesday denial of claims that his administration left behind inherited debts, including a ₦2bn ecological fund, contractor liabilities and unpaid salaries, gratuities and pensions.

Obi had said his administration cleared more than ₦35bn in historical gratuities and arrears and left office without outstanding salary, pension or gratuity obligations.

He also disputed the government’s claim concerning the ecological fund, saying more than ₦2.13bn was left untouched in a First Bank account for the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis.

However, in a statement on Wednesday, Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Law Mefor, disputed Obi’s account, saying the account he identified was an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account and not an ecological fund account.

Mefor said the government obtained a certified printout of the account and claimed 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.”

Obi had challenged anyone who could establish that his account of the state’s finances was incorrect, saying, “If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning.”

Anambra State Government has accused former governor of the state, Peter Obi, of making false claims about the debt profile and financial records he left behind when he left office in 2014.

The state government, in a statement by the Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Law Mefor, on Wednesday, alleged that eight external loans contracted during Obi’s administration had an outstanding balance of N127.37 billion as of June 30, 2026, while also challenging his claim that he left over N2.13 billion in an ecological fund account.

The statement was issued in response to a recent post by Obi on what he described as “Phantom Debts and Ecological Loan Fallacy”, which the former governor appeared to have made in reaction to comments by the state Commissioner for Finance.

Mefor said the state government considered it necessary to respond because the issues involved public funds and debts that the present administration was still servicing.

He said records from the Debt Management Office (DMO) showed that eight external loans obtained during Obi’s tenure remained outstanding as of June 30, 2026.

The loans, according to the statement, were for the Malaria Control Booster Project, Third National Fadama Development Project, Health System Development Project II, Malaria Control Booster Project (Additional Financing), State Education Programme Investment Project, Community and Social Development Project, Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project, and Value Chain Development Project.

The government said the loans were originally valued at $123.77 million, while $92.35 million remained outstanding as of June 30, 2026, equivalent to N127.37 billion.

The statement said Obi’s administration had contracted the loans for projects covering malaria control, education, healthcare, community development, erosion control and agricultural value-chain development.

The state government said it was not opposed to borrowing where such funds were deployed to bankable projects and human capital development, adding that the current administration had continued to service the debts.

“We are not complaining. It is good for Anambra once we can show the impacts,” the statement quoted the government as saying.

The government also claimed that Obi spent about $4.05 billion during his eight years in office, which it said would amount to about N5.4 trillion when converted at the current official exchange rate.

It, however, acknowledged that governments could not be expected to complete all development projects within their tenure.

The government alleged that despite the expenditure, Obi left the state with challenges in areas including public water supply, education, healthcare, insecurity and infrastructure.

It claimed that 44 per cent of communities in the state, amounting to 78 out of 179 communities, did not have public primary schools, while only about 27 per cent of residents patronised public health institutions.

The state government also accused the former governor of leaving behind unpaid salary, pension and gratuity liabilities.

According to the statement, the current administration had cleared about N22 billion in inherited gratuity arrears owed to retired state and local government employees and teachers.

It, however, said some legacy liabilities dating back to previous administrations remained outstanding.

The government specifically mentioned salary arrears owed to workers of the defunct Water Corporation, saying the current administration had negotiated a settlement and paid the first two instalments of an agreed three-instalment arrangement.

It also alleged that 16 months of salary arrears owed to primary school teachers under the local government system had been verified and certified during Obi’s administration, but that only five months were eventually paid.

The state government said it had constituted a committee headed by the Head of Service to conduct a fresh verification of the outstanding liabilities.

The most contentious issue raised in the statement was Obi’s claim concerning an alleged N2.13 billion balance in a First Bank account at the UNIZIK branch in Awka.

The former governor had reportedly stated that he left more than N2.13 billion in the account when he left office on March 17, 2014, and challenged the state government to prove otherwise.

But Mefor said the government had obtained a certified statement of the account and discovered that it was an internally generated revenue (IGR) consolidated revenue account, rather than an ecological fund account.

He further claimed that the account records showed no inflow or balance corresponding to N2.13 billion from the time the account was opened in 2011 to date.

The commissioner therefore challenged Obi to explain where the money was kept, arguing that the account he cited did not support the claim.

The government also dismissed the N75 billion savings or investment reportedly attributed to the former administration as “phantom”, noting that the claim had been disputed by the previous administration.

Mefor said the state government was responding to the former governor in the interest of transparency and accountability, insisting that it remained focused on delivering development to the people of Anambra.

Akwa Ibom State Government has outlawed the use of ambulances to transport corpses for burial, describing the practice as a public health threat.

Only hearses may now convey bodies for interment, according to the Commissioner for Health, Ekem John.

John made the disclosure on Thursday during the monthly media briefing organised by the Ministry of Information. He was flanked by the Commissioner for Information, Aniekan Umanah, and the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Ekerete Udoh.

The commissioner described the measure as one of the most significant reforms in the state’s health sector. He said Governor Umo Eno had institutionalised the Akwa Ibom State Emergency Medical Service Ambulance System, elevating it from policy to a statutory agency.

“Through this law, the state government has now criminalised and outlawed the use of ambulances to carry corpses,” John stated. “In the last one year and six months, under the reforms of His Excellency, Governor Umo Eno, we have returned our ambulance operations to the level found in the Western world.

“You will not find any government ambulance at any burial site. The law is very clear: whether it is a privately owned ambulance, mission ambulance or government ambulance, you cannot carry corpses. Corpses are carried by hearses, and when you use our ambulance to carry corpses, you are creating a public health threat to the rest of the public.”

He warned that any ambulance found transporting a corpse would be impounded, regardless of ownership. “The law now empowers government officials to impound the ambulance. So, let people know that when they go to hire an ambulance for their burial, those ambulances can be intercepted on the road.”

John also revealed that about nine bills had been forwarded to the State House of Assembly for consideration. The proposed legislation covers hospital governance, public health security, HIV prevention, protection and anti-discrimination, and public health standards regulation.

Once the health standards regulatory bill becomes law, he said, the relevant agency would set minimum acceptable standards for all health facilities in the state, requiring hospitals to meet specified obligations before they could operate.