The Anambra State Government says deductions are still being made from the state’s monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) revenue to service loans it says were obtained during the administration of former Governor Peter Obi.
The Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Law Mefor, made the disclosure on Friday while appearing on Arise Television’s The Morning Show, as the dispute over the financial records of Obi’s tenure continues.
Mefor said some of the facilities were guaranteed by the Federal Government but maintained that such guarantees did not convert the loans into grants or remove the obligation to repay them.
“First and foremost, a loan is a loan,”
He said the state’s FAAC allocations were being deducted monthly to service what he described as separate loans taken during Obi’s administration.
According to the commissioner, eight external loan facilities were contracted between 2007 and 2013, with the facilities collectively valued at about $123.7 million. He said the outstanding balance was approximately $92.35 million, equivalent to about N127.37 billion as of June 30, 2026, based on figures the state attributed to Debt Management Office records.
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The loans, according to the state government, were linked to development programmes including malaria control, FADAMA, healthcare, education and erosion and watershed management.
Mefor argued that state governments had the choice of participating in lending programmes, citing the current administration’s decision not to participate in the World Bank-backed Nigeria CARES programme.
He said the issue was not whether borrowing was inherently wrong, but whether Obi’s assertion that he did not take loans and left no financial liabilities was accurate.
The commissioner said the state was still carrying repayment obligations associated with the facilities.
Obi Disputes Anambra Government’s Claims
Peter Obi has rejected the allegations, maintaining that he left office in March 2014 without outstanding salaries, pensions, gratuities or debts owed to contractors whose jobs had been completed and properly processed.
Obi has challenged the Anambra government to provide evidence contradicting his account. He has also said he would end his campaign for the 2027 presidential election if the government could establish that he left the state with such outstanding obligations.
The dispute intensified after Anambra Commissioner for Finance, Izuchukwu Okafor, earlier said the state was still making substantial deductions from its monthly FAAC allocation to service loans inherited from previous administrations, including those of Obi and former Governor Willie Obiano.
The latest exchange leaves two competing accounts of Anambra’s financial position at the end of Obi’s tenure. The state government points to loan records and continuing repayment obligations, while Obi maintains that he handed over the state without outstanding liabilities of the kind alleged.
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