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The continuing feud between the immediate past governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi and the incumbent governor, Willie Obiano has taken a new dimension as Willie Obiano has moved the Anambra State Accounts from Fidelity Bank to Union Bank.
It is necessary to put on record that Peter Obi has the highest and dominating shares of the Fidelity Bank, thereby making him the major owner of the bank. Prior to this new development, Fidelity bank has been the one controlling most of the state accounts of Anambra.
It would be recalled that the duo were known to be close friends before now. They were both from the same institution, Fidelity Bank Plc, where Obi was the Chairman and Obiano was the Executive Director. It was for this reason that Obi went out of his way to make sure that Willie Obiano succeeds him in office.
The dispute between the two close friends started when Willie Obi finally discovered that Peter Obi had deceitfully told the whole world, when he was handing over, that Anambra State is not financially indebted to anybody or organization, and that there was a sum of 75 billion naira for Gov. Obiano to take off. This discovery had earlier resulted to a situation where Gov. Obiano refused to sign the handover note from Peter Obi, until an hour to the inauguration ceremony after spirited pleas by Catholic Bishops and some powerful traditional rulers, on the premise that Gov. Obiano insisted that the true state of the treasury should be declared and the chant of “#75billion and no debts” should stop as a precondition for signing the handover note.
It was gathered that Peter Obi had agreed to this, but later at a gathering held at Ekwueme Square, the immediate past governor, went ahead to tell the world again that Anambra State is richer by #75billion and with no debt. This, we gathered, further triggered off the anger in Gov. Willie Obiano, knowing full well that, in reality, the state has no such amount of money and that Peter Obi has actually milked the state dry before leaving office. Moreover, it was reliably discovered that the proceedings of the handover had revealed that none of the commissioners could answer questions on the real financial position of their ministry except Peter Obi himself.
Similarly, it was gathered that one of the reasons for this feud between the two friends was due to the fact that Peter Obi was getting 25% returns on every contract awarded out by the state government. As if that was not enough, Peter Obi wants to continue receiving that percentage under the administration of Willie Obiano, and the governor was determined never to allow this.
In the same vein, the disagreement between the two close friends had led to the resignation of Obi as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the ruling party in Anambra, the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). Obi had claimed at that time, through a statement from his media aide, Valentine Obienyem, that it was as a result of family issues and the non-ratification of the position by the party.
Gov. Obiano was alleged to have accused Peter Obi of squandering the resources and treasury of the state, through his bank, Fidelity. This has, most likely, prompted Gov. Willie Obi to move all state accounts of Anambra from Fidelity Bank to Union Bank.
Moreover, Obiano has alleged that his predecessor in office, Mr. Peter Obi has been accusing him falsely of tarnishing his image since he left office among other accusations. He alleged that the ex-Governor’s Media Aide, Mr. Valentine Obienyem denigrate his office.
A case in point was a protest organized by an amalgam of youth organizations in the state who protested the outcome of the March 28 National Assembly elections in the cities of Onitsha, Awka and Nnewi Wednesday which Obienyem had attributed to Obiano. Gov. Obiano had responding to this allegation by insisting that that utterance of Peter Obi was instigating crisis in the state he presides over as its chief security officer.
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