The Anambra State Government has released a 2024 out-of-court settlement document as part of its ongoing dispute with former governor Peter Obi over salary arrears and other financial obligations allegedly connected to his administration.
The document, titled “Terms of Settlement,” was signed on February 6, 2024, between the Anambra State Government and the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service, Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE). It concerns workers connected with the defunct Anambra State Water Corporation and the Anambra State Environmental Protection Agency (ANSEPA).
According to the state government, the settlement provides evidence that salary-related obligations involving some former workers remained unresolved years after Obi left office in March 2014. The government has presented the document in response to Obi’s position that he left Anambra without outstanding salaries, pensions, gratuities or other certified financial obligations.
Details contained in the settlement
The 2024 document records verified salary arrears following a process involving affected workers. It puts the verified claims for former Water Corporation employees at approximately ₦1.326 billion, while the amount attributed to ANSEPA workers was approximately ₦238.2 million.
The agreement also outlined a payment arrangement extending over several years. Under the settlement, ₦473 million was earmarked for payment in 2024, while a further ₦1.09 billion was scheduled to be distributed across 2025, 2026 and 2027. The annual instalments listed in the agreement were approximately ₦363.38 million for each of those three years.
The settlement further provided for the release of an account containing ₦473 million that had been garnished at Fidelity Bank, with the funds intended to assist in addressing the workers’ outstanding claims.
Government’s position
The Anambra State Government has described the document as fresh evidence challenging Obi’s account of his financial record in office.
In its public statement accompanying the release, the government alleged that salary arrears involving the Water Corporation remained unresolved for years and that the administration of Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo subsequently entered into an out-of-court settlement to address the claims.
The latest disclosure follows a series of exchanges between the state government and Obi concerning the financial position of Anambra when he handed over power in 2014.
The state government had previously released information concerning alleged loans, pension and gratuity liabilities and other obligations that it says were associated with previous administrations, including Obi’s tenure.
Obi’s response
Obi has rejected the allegations and maintained that his administration did not leave behind unpaid salaries, pensions or gratuities that were the responsibility of the state government at the point of handover.
He has also said that his administration inherited historical arrears and systematically addressed them, claiming that more than ₦35 billion in historical gratuities and arrears had been cleared during his tenure.
The competing positions mean that the existence of the 2024 settlement document itself is separate from the question of which administration was ultimately responsible for the underlying liabilities and when the obligations accrued. The settlement records the claims and the agreement reached in 2024; it does not, by itself, establish every aspect of responsibility for when each individual arrear originated.
Background to the dispute
The controversy has intensified in September 2026 as the two sides continue to disagree over the financial condition of Anambra at the end of Obi’s eight-year tenure.
The state government has argued that outstanding obligations existed when Obi left office, while Obi has maintained that he handed over a state without outstanding salary, pension and gratuity obligations for which his administration was responsible.
The latest settlement document therefore adds another piece of documentary evidence to an increasingly public dispute over Anambra’s historical finances. Further clarification would require examination of the underlying payroll records, dates on which the individual salary obligations accrued, and documentation showing which administrations were responsible for the respective liabilities.