Peter Obi’s $123m Loans: Anambra Govt Explains Monthly FAAC Deductions

The Anambra State Government has said that the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) revenue is being used to service loans taken by the Peter Obi administration.

Naija News reports that the Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Law Mefor, disclosed this on Friday while speaking on Arise Television.

The commissioner said the loans were among eight external facilities guaranteed by the Federal Government, adding that states could choose to participate in the lending programmes.

Mefor said the fact that some of the facilities were guaranteed by the Federal Government did not mean they were grants or funds that did not require repayment.

“First and foremost, a loan is a loan, and whether it is sovereign or not, even an interest-free loan is still a loan. The FAAC allocations to Anambra State are being deducted every month to service the separate loans taken by the Peter Obi administration,” he said.

He cited Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s decision not to participate in the Nigeria CARES loan from the World Bank as an example of a state government choosing whether to take such facilities.

“So Obi had the opportunity to either take or not to take. So if you take, you take the responsibility,” Mefor said.

He put the external facilities attributed to Obi’s administration at $123 million, arguing that the outstanding obligations should form part of any assessment of the former governor’s financial record.

Mefor said the loans were taken for various development programmes and insisted that the issue was not whether borrowing was inherently wrong, but whether Obi’s claim that he did not take loans was accurate.

“The point I’m trying to make is simple: he took loans, and he said he didn’t take,” he said.

The commissioner also rejected Obi’s claim that he left no financial liabilities for his successor, saying some loan obligations remained outstanding.

“And he said also that he did not pass down any financial liabilities that accrued from loans that he took. That is also not correct,” Mefor added.

The latest exchange followed Obi’s denial that he left Anambra with outstanding debts, salaries, pensions, gratuities or obligations to contractors when he handed over power in 2014.