The Anambra State Government has challenged former Governor Peter Obi’s claim that he left more than N2.13bn in an ecological fund account before leaving office in 2014, saying the First Bank account he identified was not an ecological fund account and never contained the amount cited.

The state Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Law Mefor, made this known in a statement shared on Wednesday by the Anambra New Media X account titled “Gov Peter Obi and Record of Public Debt in Anambra: Facts Beyond Propaganda and Lies.”

Mefor said the state government had obtained a certified printout of First Bank account number 2018779464, which Obi identified as the account where he left the ecological funds.

“We have obtained a certified printout of the account from inception to date. The account is an Internally Generated Revenue Consolidated Revenue Account, not an ecological fund account,” he said.

“From 2011, when the account was opened, until date, there has never been any such amount, whether as inflow or balance, in the account.”

The commissioner consequently challenged Obi to explain where the N2.13bn he claimed to have left for his successor was kept.

The latest response followed Obi’s statement on Tuesday rejecting claims by the Anambra Government that his administration left behind inherited debts, including a N2bn ecological loan, contractor liabilities and unpaid salaries, gratuities and pensions.

Obi had said his administration systematically liquidated historical gratuities and arrears dating back several years, amounting to more than N35bn.

“At the point of handover, the state owed nothing in salaries, gratuities, or pensions, nor did we owe anything to any contractor for projects duly executed and certified,” he said.

On the disputed ecological fund, Obi said the money was released barely three months before the end of his tenure to address the Oko/Umuchiana erosion crisis.

He said that despite pressure to spend the money, he refused and insisted it should be left for his successor because “government is a continuum” and the funds were tied to a specific project.

Obi further claimed that the money was left “100 per cent intact” in First Bank, with the account balance standing at more than N2.13bn.

Mefor, however, said the certified printout the state government obtained did not support Obi’s description of the account or the amount he claimed was held in it.

Mefor also addressed the wider issue of debts allegedly inherited by the current administration, saying eight external borrowings remained after Obi left office on March 17, 2014.

According to the commissioner, “as of June 30, 2026, the total balance of these loans stood at N127.4 billion at the official exchange rate.”

The loans listed by the government included the Malaria Control Booster Project, Third National Fadama Development Project, Health System Development Project II, State Education Programme Investment Project, Community and Social Development Project, Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project and Value Chain Development Project.

Mefor also disputed Obi’s claim that his administration left office without owing salaries, gratuities or pensions.

He said the Soludo administration had cleared about N22bn in inherited gratuity arrears but added that “legacy arrears remain from Obi and earlier administrations.”

According to him, the outstanding liabilities included arrears for retired teachers and Water Corporation staff.

On the Water Corporation workers, Mefor said, “salary arrears lingered through the Obi administration and were eventually settled under the Soludo administration, with the first two of three instalments already paid.”

He further claimed that Obi’s administration verified and certified 16 months of salary arrears for primary school teachers but paid only five months.

“The Obi administration verified/certified 16 months of salary arrears for primary school teachers but paid only five months,” Mefor said.

The commissioner also rejected Obi’s claim that his administration left more than N75bn in savings.

“We will not engage in nebulous creative accounting. If there were N75 billion in savings, as claimed, where are the records?” Mefor said.

The government’s response came after Obi rejected the debt claims and challenged anyone who could establish that his account of the ecological fund was false.

“If anybody can establish anything to the contrary, I will stop campaigning,” Obi said. (The Nation)