Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has said Nigerians will subject Peter Obi’s claims to greater scrutiny ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Keyamo made the remarks in a post on X on Thursday while commenting on the ongoing dispute between Obi and the Anambra State Government over the financial records of his tenure as governor.
The minister rejected suggestions that the repeated attention on Obi amounted to an obsession with the former Anambra governor, arguing that increased scrutiny was necessary to verify his public claims.
Keyamo alleged that Obi made misleading claims during the 2023 presidential campaign but escaped sufficient fact-checking at the time. He said Nigerians were now prepared to examine his statements more closely ahead of the next election.
His comments came amid a renewed dispute over Anambra’s finances under Obi, who governed the state from 2006 to 2014.
The Anambra State Government recently released details of eight external loans it said were contracted during Obi’s administration, putting the outstanding balance at about N127.4 billion as of June 30, 2026. The government also disputed Obi’s claim that more than N2.13 billion was left in a First Bank account as an ecological fund for the Oko and Umuchiana erosion project.
Obi has rejected the allegations, maintaining that he left office without unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities or liabilities to contractors whose projects had been completed and certified. He has also defended his account of the disputed ecological fund and challenged the Anambra Government to provide evidence contradicting his claims.
The competing claims over the state’s debt position and the disputed ecological fund have not been independently resolved.
Keyamo maintained that the level of public discussion surrounding Obi was linked to the claims being made by the NDC presidential candidate.
