A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Kenneth Okonkwo, has admitted that he was misled when he previously defended former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi against claims that his administration left debts and other financial obligations behind.
Okonkwo, who served as Obi’s spokesperson during the 2023 presidential campaign and is now spokesperson for the presidential campaign council of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, made the disclosure on TVC’s Sunday Politics programme.
He said he could no longer repeat some of the claims he made in Obi’s defence during the 2023 election campaign because fresh information had emerged.
Okonkwo recalled telling Nigerians that Obi left office without debts, unpaid salaries, pensions or gratuities.
“I’m not a man that stands on my own misunderstanding. When I see the facts, I agree,” he said.
According to him, the Anambra State Government has since presented claims that Obi’s administration obtained eight loans and left salary arrears at the state-owned water corporation.
“The fact is Anambra State Government said he borrowed eight loans. The fact is that Anambra State said that at the water corporation, he was owing workers there, all the salaries, all the arrears. I cannot say the same thing that I said about Peter Obi in 2023,” Okonkwo said.
The comments come amid a continuing dispute between Obi and the Anambra State Government over the state’s debt profile and financial obligations inherited from previous administrations.
The state government has said Obi left $123.77 million in debt when he handed over power in 2014. It also released documents relating to N363.38 million in salary arrears which it said were inherited from the Obi administration.
Obi has rejected the allegations, maintaining that he left office without outstanding debts, unpaid salaries, pensions or contractors’ obligations. He also said his administration left N2.1 billion in an ecological fund, a claim the state government said it could not substantiate.
Okonkwo also revisited his previous defence of Obi’s family over allegations concerning the cost of a wristwatch allegedly worn by President Bola Tinubu’s son, saying his approach to scrutinising Obi would be different in the 2027 election.
“That’s why I said in 2023, I campaigned for them as the examination in chief. In 2027, it’s going to be a cross-examination,” he said.