Anambra Escalates Peter Obi Fight, Tells APGA Supporters to Resist NDC

The Anambra State Government has stepped up its criticism of former governor Peter Obi, urging voters and supporters of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to resist his presidential bid in the 2027 election.

The government made the call Monday through a post on its official X account, managed by the New Media office of Governor Charles Soludo. In a message directed particularly at APGA supporters, it accused Obi of working against the party that produced him as governor and urged voters to support the party's political base.

The statement described Obi as a betrayal of APGA and alleged that he had pursued the weakening of the party since leaving office. It also contrasted Obi's political position with President Bola Tinubu's relationship with APGA, arguing that Tinubu had supported the party while Obi backed opposition forces.

The claims are part of an increasingly visible political dispute ahead of the 2027 general election. Obi governed Anambra on the APGA platform before later moving to the Peoples Democratic Party and subsequently becoming the Labour Party's presidential candidate in 2023. He is now preparing to contest the presidency under the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).

The Anambra government's criticism also invokes the events surrounding the 2015 presidential election. APGA did not field a presidential candidate for that election and instead endorsed then-President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP. Contemporary reports show that APGA's national leadership formally backed Jonathan's re-election, while Obi himself served as a senior figure in Jonathan's campaign organization.

That history complicates the current accusation that Obi's political actions in that period amounted to an effort to destroy APGA. The party itself had decided to support Jonathan, while Obi was separately an active supporter of the PDP candidate. In Anambra, Jonathan eventually won the state overwhelmingly in 2015, securing more than 660,000 votes, according to election data.

APGA, meanwhile, remains a significant political force in Anambra. Governor Soludo secured a second term in the November 2025 governorship election under the party, winning all 21 local government areas and polling 422,664 votes, according to results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission. His closest challenger, APC's Nicholas Ukachukwu, received 99,445 votes.

The result gives APGA a strong electoral base in the state, but it also makes the party's relationship with Obi politically important. Obi remains one of the state's most prominent political figures and has retained a substantial national following since his 2023 presidential campaign.

The relationship between Obi and Soludo has become more complicated in recent months. In September, Anambra Information Commissioner Law Mefor said there was no personal feud between the two men, arguing that their differences were better understood as competing political interests. He also defended Soludo's cooperation with Tinubu as consistent with APGA's historical willingness to work with the federal government regardless of party affiliation.

Obi has likewise said publicly that he has no quarrel with Soludo. In September, he called for issue-based political campaigns and said presidential candidates should be allowed to campaign freely across states regardless of political affiliation.

But the rhetoric has nevertheless intensified. Former APGA national chairman and party founder Chekwas Okorie has accused Soludo of pursuing a vendetta against Obi and criticized what he described as repeated attacks on the former governor. Those comments illustrate that the disagreement has generated competing interpretations even within the wider APGA political family.

The dispute is also unfolding alongside a separate argument over Obi's record in office. The Anambra government has questioned claims made by the former governor about the state's finances and external obligations, while Obi has rejected the government's characterization of debts associated with projects implemented during his tenure. Obi has said he left the state in sound financial condition and has challenged the government's figures.

None of those political accusations, however, should be treated as established findings against either politician. They remain part of an increasingly contested political narrative, with the two camps presenting sharply different accounts of Obi's record and APGA's history.

The latest intervention from the Anambra government signals that the 2027 presidential contest is already beginning to shape political alignments inside the state. For APGA, the challenge will be to maintain its dominant position in Anambra while navigating the presence of a former APGA governor whose national ambitions could draw support from voters beyond traditional party structures. For Obi, the question will be whether his national political profile can translate into support in a state where APGA remains deeply rooted and where the incumbent governor has just secured a sweeping electoral mandate.

Ultimately, the growing confrontation is about more than a disagreement between two prominent Anambra politicians. It reflects a larger battle over political inheritance, party loyalty and who has the strongest claim to represent the state's interests in the 2027 presidential race. With the election still months away, the increasingly direct appeals to Anambra voters suggest that the state could become an important political battleground long before Nigerians cast their ballots.