Kenneth Okonkwo, who spoke for Peter Obi’s 2023 presidential campaign, has reversed his defence of the former Anambra governor’s financial record, saying he was misled when he told Nigerians Obi left no debts behind.
“I was misled”
Okonkwo, now a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and spokesman for the campaign council of ADC presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, spoke on Sunday on Television Continental’s “Sunday Politics”.
“I was misled,” he said, adding that recent disclosures by the Anambra State government meant he could no longer repeat his 2023 assurances that Obi left no unpaid salaries, gratuities or pensions.
“I cannot say the same thing that I said about Peter Obi in 2023,” he said.
From defence to scrutiny
Okonkwo said his role toward Obi, now the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), would be different in the 2027 race.
“In 2027, it’s going to be a cross-examination,” he said, describing his 2023 advocacy as the “examination in chief”.
What Anambra claims
The Anambra government says Obi’s administration contracted eight external loan facilities worth $123.77 million, with about $92.35 million (₦127.37 billion) outstanding as of June 30. It has also raised claims of salary arrears owed to workers of the state Water Corporation.
Obi rejects the claims
Obi has denied leaving Anambra in debt. He says he neither approached financial institutions to borrow nor issued a bond on the state’s behalf, and that the state’s figures lump together different categories of multilateral financing. Citing Debt Management Office data, he puts Anambra’s external debt at about $30 million when he left office in March 2014.
The dispute has drawn in the All Progressives Congress campaign council, which has challenged Obi to explain the state’s finances.
