Soludo Releases 2024 Settlement Document

Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, has released a 2024 out-of-court settlement document involving workers of the defunct Anambra State Water Corporation and the Anambra State Environmental Protection Agency (ANSEPA), using it to challenge former Governor Peter Obi’s claim that he left office without unpaid salaries or other outstanding obligations.

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).

The Soludo administration shared the document on its official X account on Wednesday as part of the renewed dispute over the financial position of the state when Obi left office in March 2014.

According to the document, verified salary arrears amounted to ₦1.325 billion for workers of the defunct Water Corporation and ₦238.18 million for ANSEPA staff.

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The settlement provided for the arrears to be paid in instalments between 2024 and 2027. It stipulated that ₦473 million would be paid in 2024, while ₦1.09 billion would be distributed across 2025, 2026 and 2027.

The state government presented the agreement as evidence that salary obligations involving the affected workers remained unresolved after Obi’s tenure.

In its post accompanying the document, the state government accused Obi of making false claims about his financial record as governor and said the Soludo administration is addressing the outstanding liabilities.

The latest disclosure follows a series of exchanges between the Soludo administration and Obi over whether the former governor left Anambra State with unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities, debts and other financial obligations.

Obi has rejected the allegations, maintaining that his administration cleared historical arrears inherited from previous governments.

The former governor said his administration “systematically liquidated historical gratuities and arrears” amounting to more than ₦35 billion and maintained that he left office without outstanding salaries, pensions or gratuities.

Obi has also challenged those disputing his account to produce evidence that he left Anambra State with outstanding liabilities, saying he would stop his 2027 presidential campaign if such claims were established.

The 2024 settlement, however, shows that the dispute involving Water Corporation and ANSEPA workers continued into the Soludo administration and eventually resulted in a formal agreement between the state government and AUPCTRE.

The document therefore forms part of the competing accounts over the origin, duration and responsibility for the arrears, with the Anambra State government linking the liabilities to the period before Soludo assumed office, while Obi maintains that his administration inherited and settled substantial historical obligations.