Nwobodo, Ex-sports Minister Slams N20b Libel Suit Against Lagos Businessman

Basil Ogbuanu, a Lagos-based businessman could be coughing out a whopping N20billion in compensation to Jim Nwobodo, former Governor of old Anambra State and Senator formerly representing Enugu East in the National Assembly, for allegedly defaming him.

This is the gamut of a suit filed by Nwobodo, also former Minister of Sports before an Enugu High Court, where he is claiming that several media publications instigated by the Lagos businessman, had put him in bad light.

The suit filed by Chuma Oguejiofor, was accompanied by a 20-paragraph affidavit, another 20-paragraph statement of claim, 22-paragraph statement of oath, eight-paragraph certificate of compliance, one-paragraph list of witnesses and 15-paragraph statement on oath of one Chris Utazi, an Enugu based lawyer, as Principal Witness.

Narrating his ordeal in the hand of the businessman, the former governor recounted how the matter began over the sale of a piece of land, in an estate he bought some 50 years ago in 1976, prior to becoming governor, three years later in 1979, to Ogbuanu, became problematic due to the latter’s failure to comply with all of the conditionalities attached to the deal.

Nwobodo, contended that he had advised the businessman, as with others who bought into the estate, to tarry with development pending when the official documentations transferring the status from the lease agreement that existed at the time it was acquired to the current status of Certificate of Occupancy (C-of-O) status, that was introduced two years after in 1978, currently in place.

However, in his claim, he further told the court that instead of waiting as generally agreed, Ogbuanu, surreptitiously went into the land and started developing and defacing the estate, without approval of the relevant authorities to do so, and subsequently got his fingers burnt when the structures he was erecting, got demolished by the government.

But instead of blaming himself for his ordeal, Nwobodo, 86 and one of the two surviving governors of the second republic, claimed Ogbuanu took his fate out on him (Nwobodo) by launching media campaigns, which had now injured his image.

Joined in the suit were five others, including ThisDay newspapers, which he claimed ran some of the stories at various times, praying the court, to order those involved to publicly apologise to him as well as pay him N20billion, jointly, in damages for the terrible harm they had caused his name and for the psychological effect therefrom.
Specifically, he prayed the for:
• An order of injunction restraining the Defendants, their agents, privies or any person acting for or at their behest from publishing continuing to publish or causing to be published, any defamatory or offensive materials against the Plaintiff.
• An order of court directing the Defendants to retract the publications and make written apologies to the Plaintiff in at least 3 leading National Newspapers in Nigeria including THIS DAY and GUARDIAN NEWSPAPERS.
• N20 Billion damages, jointly and severally from the Defendants for libel.
Part of the Senator’s specific statement, read: “That my integrity is doubtless and top-notch, before going into politics, I was a very wealthy man sitting atop several companies like the Links Group Ltd, Jimson Nig Ltd, Linkana Ltd, and etc.
“In fact, I am one of the few Nigerians that left office as Governor Poorer than when I entered office. Long before I entered politics at about 1976, I had acquired a large expanse of land at the highbrow Independence Layout Area of Enugu through my company, the Linkana Hotels Ltd, intending to use same for leisure business including building a hotel/resort on same. The property is known as Plot S/10 Independence Layout Enugu.

“That in 1980 when I got elected as the first civilian Governor of old Anambra State and was sworn into office, I resigned my direct ownership of the companies, but turned attention recently back to plot S/10 only to discover that more than 3/4 of same has been lost to land grabbers and speculators.

“Someone else with even half of my influence would have insisted on recovering all of the plots but I walked away and parcellated what was left of the said plots S/10 into plots of more than 20, 4 of them I had sold to the 1st defendant i.e. plots R/18-R/21, and I sold the rest to the teeming public.
“That the 1 st Defendant who had bought the 4 plots did pay a total consideration of N235,000,000= to me for same, I have never denied receiving such consideration from him or selling the property to the 1 st defendant.
He also contended further that: “In that plot S/10 has only a Deed of lease that was issued out to my Linkana Hotels Ltd in 1976 when I acquired title to same, it got imperative that the said lease be replaced with a certificate of occupancy introduced in 1978 by a Decree of the Ruling Military Government i.e. the Land Use Decree now Act. The procurement of the said certificate of occupancy takes time and is not a tea party, the 1 st Respondent knows this and even before paying for plots R/18 -R/ 21, he was so informed.
“That my wife and our children own shares in the company, at some point for certain personal reasons that bear on matters of inheritance, the property i.e. Plot S/10 was transferred to Moss Island Ltd, the 1st Defendant who had conducted searches at the Lands Registry Enugu to assure himself that the
property belongs to me, had discovered that the property was registered in the said name of Moss Island Ltd consequent upon which I gave him satisfactory explanation on the link or connection between Linkana Hotels Ltd and Moss Island Ltd. The 1st defendant was apparently satisfied that the difference between the two was as the difference between Tweedledee and Tweedledum, he had then paid for plots R/18, R/19, R/20 and R/21. In other words, before parting with consideration, the 1 st Defendant knew that the property was registered in the name of Moss Island Ltd.
“That the 1st Defendant was given vacant possession of plots R/18 – R/21 but was advised not to commence effecting improvements on them till the certificate of occupancy for the entire plot S/10 from which plot R/18- R/21 were carved out had been secured from the Government of the Enugu State. A scheme for the estate had also been submitted to the requisite Government agencies for approval. But where he was unwilling to tarry a while as he had been advised for these to be sorted out, I was ready to refund the total consideration he had received from the 1st defendant amounting to
N235,000,000= to him.
“That the 1st Defendant appeared to have understood and subscribed to the plaintiff’s explanations but alas, he had his own plans. The 1 st defendant had commenced effecting improvements on the aforementioned plots R/18 – R/21 rather surreptitiously, he worked on the property in the night to evade Government attention but the Government of Enugu State and some of its agencies had discovered that the 1st Defendant was effecting improvements on the property, the 1 st Defendant claims they had set upon the improvements and destroyed them and that myself and my wife had instigated them to do so. The claim is as tendentious as it is false and mischievous because I have nothing to do with that.
“That the following facts are clear beyond peradventure i.e., to say;

(i) That I had a land transaction with the 1 st Defendant by which I had sold these plots of land to him i.e., to say Plots R/18 – R/21 Independence Layout Enugu.
(ii) That the 1 st Defendant had gotten documents evidencing his purchase of
the property, infact whether it be Linkana Hotels Ltd., or Moss Island Ltd., that
sold the land to him, both are owned by me and members of my family. The 1st Defendant was given vacant possession of the plots he paid for, he is still in possession of the plots till date and has even effected improvement on same just that he had some disagreements with the Government of the day in Enugu State and its agencies because he has commenced effecting improvements on the plots sold to him against their directives.
(iii) The 1 st Defendant had been given possession of the said Plots R/18 – R/21 otherwise where did he build the structures that were allegedly destroyed at my instigation?
(iv) I have never hedged in offering to refund the 1st Defendant the N235,000,000= being total consideration he had paid for Plots R/18-R/21, this is not the way of fraudsters.

(v) Till date, the name of the 1st Defendant is registered in the property card in respect of Plots R/18-R/21 at the Lands Registry Enugu.
“That when he got his fingers burnt after defying the Government of Enugu State and its agencies to effect improvements on Plots R/18 – R/21 against their advice not to, the 1st Defendant turned round to point in my direction albeit wrongly, as being the source of his problems. He lashed out at myself and my wife most viciously not only in the social media but through hoodlums he had let loose on my wife when she visited Plot S/10 of the Plaintiff on 16/1/2026.

“That the above words are in their ordinary and natural meaning defamatory of my character as I was mentioned in the publication by name. I was portrayed before right thinking members of the public including my teeming admirers who are multitude, as a mean hearted, petty and wicked fraudster who had conned the 1st Defendant off his hard-earned money amounting to N235,000,000= while giving him nothing in return.

“That any right-thinking person that read the splashing headline will not bat an eyelid to conclude that I am a first class fraudster, it did not matter that the Defendants had disingenuously sought to make out that they were only reporting court proceedings and processes filed in court by the 1st Defendant against me, that was a clever subterfuge by which the Defendants sought to conceal their burning hatred and insidious machinations orchestrated by the 1st Defendant in league with the other Defendants to get at me and damage my reputation irremediably.

“I harbour no doubt that the 1st Defendant had instigated the publication because when he wrote a petition against my wife to the Nigerian Bar Association on 25/6/2026, he had leaked same to all the other Defendants.

“It is also clear to me that he leaked the offensive publications to several other individuals platforms, bloggers etc purposely so as to injure my reputation.”