Otu says Cross River cut domestic debt by N70bn without fresh loans. DMO tables back the cut; state accounts record N88.69bn of new loans drawn

Inaugurating the Cross River All Progressives Congress campaign council in Calabar on Saturday, 31 October 2026, Governor Bassey Otu said his government had reduced the inherited domestic debt of more than N204 billion by over N70 billion "without taking fresh loans", bringing it to about N132.3 billion as of March 2026. Vero Record set those words against the Debt Management Office's state debt tables and against the state government's own audited accounts for 2024 and 2025. His debt figures match the DMO's, and the fall he describes is in the record. The second half of the sentence is not what the accounts say. They record N48.26 billion of domestic loans drawn down in 2024 and N40.42 billion of "New local loans" drawn in 2025, N88.69 billion in two years, all of it during his term.

The claim was reported in the same words on 1 November by ThisDay, Blueprint and Daily Trust. In each account the debt figures and the phrase about fresh loans are the newspaper's summary of the governor's speech, not words he is quoted as saying; his one direct quotation on the subject is "Every debt retired is freedom for our children and house-cleaning for fresh fiscal air." Vero Record did not hear a recording of the speech. The same reports have him saying that internally generated revenue rose from N21.1 billion in 2022 to N46.3 billion in 2024.

The starting figure is in the record. The DMO's table of state domestic debt as at 30 June 2023, a month after Mr Otu took office on 29 May, puts Cross River at N204,045,567,373.66. The table's notes say the Cross River figure is as at 30 June 2023 and that the report is generated from the signed-off submissions of the states themselves. "More than N204 billion" is an accurate description of it.

So is the end point. The DMO's table as at 31 March 2026, prepared on 18 May 2026, puts Cross River's domestic debt at N132,301,381,088.07, which is the governor's "approximately N132.3 billion". The difference is N204,045,567,373.66 minus N132,301,381,088.07, or N71,744,186,285.59: "over N70 billion", as he said. The latest table, as at 30 June 2026, has fallen a little further, to N130,008,126,419.98, a reduction of N74,037,440,953.68 since June 2023.

The path between the two dates was not a straight line. The DMO tables put the state's domestic debt at N212,038,531,997.39 on 30 September 2023 and N220,201,482,435.66 on 31 December 2023, a rise of N16,155,915,062.00 in the governor's first half-year. When that rise was reported in March 2024, his Chief Press Secretary, Nsa Gill, said "The governor has not signed nor taken a fresh loan on behalf of the state", and argued that DMO totals include accrued interest, judgment debts and contract debts as well as loans. The tables then show N155,488,943,829.41 at 30 June 2024 and N118,134,026,523.31 at 31 December 2024, before a second rise, of N29,145,368,100.23, to N147,279,394,623.54 at 30 June 2025. The figure was N137,355,748,136.87 at the end of 2025.

The state's audited accounts speak to the loans directly. The 2024 Annual Report and Accounts published by the Office of the Auditor-General of Cross River State, which carries the state government's financial statements for that year, sets out the movement in domestic loans in note 30a on printed page 68. It begins 2024 with N124,786,040,000, adds an "Aggregate draw down in the year" of N48,260,533,000 and an interest charge of N6,855,285,000, subtracts repayments of N86,155,466,000 and closes at N93,746,392,000. Those figures add up exactly. The same note gives a drawdown of N43,556,333,000 for 2023, a year Mr Otu shared with his predecessor; the accounts do not split it at 29 May.

The 2025 report repeats the 2024 figure and adds a new one. Its cash flow statement on printed page 39 has a line headed "Loans draw down (New local loans) - Inflow", showing N40,424,712,000 for 2025 and N48,260,533,000 for 2024, the same 2024 amount as note 30a of the earlier report. Together the two years come to N88,685,245,000. The same statement records principal repayments of N52,690,313,000 in 2025 and N94,350,532,000 in 2024.

Read together, the documents support the governor's arithmetic and not his description of how it was achieved. Over 2024 and 2025 the state repaid N147,040,845,000 of principal and drew N88,685,245,000 of new loans, so repayments exceeded new borrowing by N58,355,600,000. The repayment line covers both domestic and external loans, so that figure is not a measure of domestic debt alone. The debt fell because the state repaid more than it borrowed, not because it stopped borrowing.

The accounts do not say who lent the N88.69 billion, on what terms, or whether the drawdowns were made under facilities agreed before May 2023, which some readers might not count as fresh loans. Note 30 of the 2024 statements lists the long-term portion of the domestic loans by type, and every category except the State Bond is smaller at the end of 2024 than at the start; the State Bond rose from N12,734,229,000 to N14,058,165,000. The 2025 notes that would explain the year's drawdown are not in the published report, which ends part-way through note 17 on page 65, as Vero Record reported in September. Vero Record did not put these questions to the governor's office before publication.

The governor spoke of domestic debt only. The DMO's external debt tables show Cross River owing $153,168,738.50 at 30 June 2023 and $223,352,205.16 at 30 June 2026, a rise of $70,183,466.66, almost all of it in loans from multilateral lenders, which went from $106,319,659.69 to $197,445,193.82. The tables do not say whether this reflects new agreements or payments under loans signed before 2023. The Auditor-General's 2025 commentary, on printed page 8, attributes a N31,508,324,000 rise in the value of external loans in 2025 to "variance in the value of DMO reconciliation" and notes that the loans carry floating rates.

On revenue, the record is with the governor. The National Bureau of Statistics' state revenue data put Cross River's internally generated revenue at N21,098,947,831.94 in 2022, the N21.1 billion he cited. For 2024 the same data give N47,018,239,529.33, slightly more than the N46.3 billion in his speech.

What the documents do not establish is any wrongdoing. Borrowing by a state is lawful, and nothing here suggests the loans were improperly contracted or spent. They also do not establish how much of the N88.69 billion was new credit and how much was drawn on older facilities, or why the DMO's domestic total rose by N29.15 billion in the first half of 2025. What they do establish is that Cross River's domestic debt fell by about N71.74 billion between June 2023 and March 2026, as the governor said, while the state's own audited accounts record two consecutive years of new local loans.

What this rests on

Documents downloaded and read for this report: DMO, Domestic Debt Data for the 36 States and the FCT as at 30 June 2023 (scanned table, Cross River row 9 read from the rendered page), 30 September 2023, 31 December 2023, 30 June 2024, 31 December 2024, 30 June 2025, 31 December 2025, 31 March 2026 (prepared 18 May 2026) and 30 June 2026; DMO, States, FCT and Federal Government's External Debt Stock as at 30 June 2023 and as at 30 June 2026; Office of the Auditor-General, Cross River State, 2024 Annual Report and Accounts (CRS-2024-Audited-Financial-Statements.pdf, 86 pages), notes 30 and 30a, printed page 68; Office of the Auditor-General, Cross River State, 2025 Annual Report and Accounts (2025-CROSS-RIVER-STATE-AUDITED-FINANCIAL-STATEMENTS.pdf, 68 pages, financial statement pages scanned and rotated), Statement No. 3 cash flow, printed pages 39 and 40, and section 2.10 Liabilities, printed page 8; NBS state IGR data workbook 2019 to 2025, sheets 2022 and 2024. Arithmetic re-done: 204,045,567,373.66 - 132,301,381,088.07 = 71,744,186,285.59; 204,045,567,373.66 - 130,008,126,419.98 = 74,037,440,953.68; 220,201,482,435.66 - 204,045,567,373.66 = 16,155,915,062.00; 147,279,394,623.54 - 118,134,026,523.31 = 29,145,368,100.23. Note 30a (N'000), 2024: 124,786,040 + 48,260,533 + 6,855,285 - 86,155,466 = 93,746,392, as printed; 2023: 119,566,626 + 43,556,333 + 287,546 - 38,624,465 = 124,786,040, as printed. Note 30 domestic categories at 31 Dec 2024, non-current 13,564,523 + 15,452,877 + 336,460 + 17,006,313 + 24,514,399 + 14,058,165 = 84,932,737, plus current portion (note 28) 8,813,654 = 93,746,391, within N1,000 of the note 30a closing balance. 2025 cash flow (N'000): new local loans 40,424,712 + 48,260,533 = 88,685,245; principal repaid 52,690,313 + 94,350,532 = 147,040,845; 147,040,845 - 88,685,245 = 58,355,600. Net cash flow from financing 2025: -17,075,940 + 31,508,324 - 1,567,747 + 40,424,712 - 52,690,313 = 599,036, as printed on page 40. External (USD): June 2023 Cross River 106,319,659.69 + 31,559,803.04 + 15,289,275.77 = 153,168,738.50, as printed; June 2026 197,445,193.82 + 25,907,011.34 = 223,352,205.16, as printed; rise 70,183,466.66. NBS IGR: 2022 total tax 17,105,758,131.91 + MDAs 3,993,189,700.03 = 21,098,947,831.94; 2024 30,774,958,278.60 + 16,243,281,250.73 = 47,018,239,529.33.

What this does not establish

Who lent the N40.42 billion drawn in 2025 and the N48.26 billion drawn in 2024, on what terms, and whether any of it was drawn under facilities agreed before Governor Otu took office on 29 May 2023; the published 2025 report ends in note 17 and does not carry note 30. How much of the N43.56 billion drawn in 2023 fell after 29 May. Why the DMO's domestic figure for Cross River rose by N16.16 billion in the second half of 2023 and by N29.15 billion in the first half of 2025, and how much of each rise was new borrowing rather than interest, judgment debts or contract debts, which the governor's office said in 2024 the DMO totals include. Why the domestic loan balance in the audited accounts (N93.75 billion at the end of 2024) is lower than the DMO's figure for the same date (N118.13 billion); the two records do not use the same definition. Whether the rise in external debt reflects new loan agreements or disbursements and valuation changes on earlier loans. Vero Record did not hear a recording of the speech and relies on the identical newspaper accounts of 1 November 2026. The governor's office was not asked for comment before publication. Nothing in these documents suggests that any loan was unlawful or improperly used, and none is alleged.