A former spokesman of the Anambra State Water Corporation, Victor Ononye, has backed the Anambra State Government’s claim that workers of the defunct Water Corporation were owed salaries, pensions and gratuities during the administration of former Governor Peter Obi.
Ononye made the assertion in a statement shared on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, while reacting to the ongoing dispute between the Anambra State Government and Obi over the former governor’s record in office.
The development follows the Anambra State Government’s recent publication of its response to Obi’s claims on the state’s public debt. In its statement titled “Gov Peter Obi and Record of Public Debt in Anambra: Facts Beyond Propaganda and Lies,” the government alleged that salary arrears owed to staff of the defunct Water Corporation persisted throughout Obi’s tenure and later resulted in court proceedings and judgments.
According to Ononye, who said he served as spokesman of the Water Corporation, employees allegedly endured eight years without salaries, pensions and gratuities.
He further alleged that some workers were dismissed without committing any offence, adding that staff of the former Anambra State Environmental and Sanitation Authority (ANSEPA) allegedly experienced similar circumstances.
Ononye said the situation caused severe hardship among affected workers and their families, claiming that some victims died before receiving their entitlements.
He also linked the alleged non-payment of workers to the deterioration of public water supply in the state.
“For eight years, there was nothing like pipe-borne water in Anambra and people lived as nothing happened,” Ononye said.
He alleged that the absence of functional public water supply contributed to poor sanitation and increased exposure to sickness and disease.
Ononye also raised concerns about the Greater Onitsha Water Supply Scheme, alleging that the multi-billion-naira project had deteriorated and was no longer serving its intended purpose.
He contrasted the situation with water schemes in neighbouring Enugu and Ebonyi states, which he claimed remained operational.
The Anambra State Government had, in its September 16 statement, said the current administration had negotiated a settlement over the salary arrears of former Water Corporation workers and had already paid the first two instalments of an agreed three-instalment settlement.
The government also alleged that it had cleared about N22 billion in inherited gratuity arrears involving retired state and local government employees and teachers.
The claims form part of a wider political dispute over the financial record of Obi’s administration, with both sides presenting competing accounts of inherited liabilities, debt and government spending.
