Mr Valentine Obienyem, media assistant to former Anambra State governor and Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in 2023, Mr Peter Obi, has dismissed as baseless the claim by a contractor that the Obi administration owed him N36 million as at the time the tenure expired in 2014.
One Chief Ikem Okeke from Nri community in Peter Obi’s Anaocha local government area of the state had claimed that the Obi administration owed him N36 million for an executed project as at the time the tenure expired, and, thereby faulted the claim by the administrator that it did not owe any contractor but left a huge N75 billon in the state treasury for the successor .
But in a press statement issued yesterday in Awka, Obienyem claimed that Okeke simply levelled the allegations to tarnish his principal’s administration’s sterling achievement record.
Obienyem stated that six months to the expiration of Obi’s administration, the government had sponsored public service announcements in some national dailies and other media channels wherein it “urged contractors and suppliers with unpaid claims to come forward for resolution.”
He stated that over 5,000 contractors and suppliers worked with the Anambra State government during Obi’s eight-year administration and described it as “curious that only one individual has come up with such claims” of being owed N36 million several years after.
“The person behind this allegation is Chief Ikem Okeke from Nri. Notably, Chief Okeke’s mother served as commissioner for Education in Mr Obi’s government for several years. It is left for investigative journalists to unearth what he benefitted in the ministry under his mother and against Obi’s policy that those in government should not award contracts to their sons and daughters.
“The baseless allegation of a debt of N36 million was known in government. It was a contract that was duly settled, where the contractor was just trying to be clever and has gone to court and everywhere and yet lost out.
“These claims are not only unfounded but also represent a disingenuous attempt to tarnish Mr Obi’s reputation by an individual who now aligns with an opposing political camp. As Mr. Obi has always maintained, he is not a saint. However, his record in private, corporate, and public life remains unrivalled and exemplary,” he stated.
