The immediate-past governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano, has died in London following a long battle with illness. He was aged 70.
According to sources close to the family, he suffered from “severe heart failure and complications related to urinary cancer.”
A senior family member, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “His health had been declining in the past months, but the final collapse came suddenly. We are devastated.”
Medical officials confirmed that Obiano was in intensive care before his condition deteriorated. “He fought till the very last moment,” a hospital insider disclosed.
Obiano’s death came as he was preparing to face trial in Nigeria. In July, a Federal High Court in Abuja scheduled his trial for November 25 on charges filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The ex-governor faced a nine-count charge of alleged money laundering involving N4 billion, under the purview of Justice Mohammed Umar, following a recent reassignment of the case.
Obiano, who governed Anambra State from March 2014 to March 2022, was accused of misappropriating state funds during his tenure. During the October 2024 hearing, EFCC’s lead counsel Sylvanus Tahir, SAN, called a former bank employee, Ugochukwu Otubelu, as the third prosecution witness (PW-3). Otubelu, who worked at the bank between November 2008 and March 2023 and is now a businessman, testified that he managed transactions for the security vote account on behalf of Obiano’s administration.
According to Otubelu, the signatories to the security vote account were Obiano’s principal secretary, Willy Nwokoye, and the accountant, Theophilus Nweze. He said he interfaced with them regularly to process the account’s daily and weekly transactions.
