Nwobodo denies tension in Nkanu, dismisses land dispute report
Senator Jim Nwobodo, former Governor of old Anambra State and Senator representing Enugu East at the National Assembly between 1999 and 2003, has laughed off a report claiming the presence of “uneasy calm” in his Nkanu community of Enugu State, over a land dispute.
The elder statesman and one of the two surviving governors of the 1979-83 set of governors dismissed the report with a wave of the hand, describing it as part of the orchestrated campaign to smear his name by one Basil Ogbuanu, in a gambit to wriggle out of the criminal mess he currently found himself in by his untoward activities.
Against the backdrop of details of the report, published in ThisDay newspapers, on Sunday, describing how “Tension has enveloped Nkanuland in Enugu State as prominent indigenes of the area are sharply divided over the demolition of buildings belonging to a Lagos-based businessman and investor, Dr. Basil Ogbuanu, inside an Estate at the Independent Layout, Enugu,” Nwobodo, an octogenarian, who celebrated his 86th birthday in May this year, wondered in which part of Nkanu land such tension existed.
His word: “Anybody talking of tension or uneasy calm in Nkanu, is talking nonsense. That person is a big liar. Nkanu is not somewhere in a cave or some undiscovered place in the earth planet. It is existing as a prominent community in Enugu State. Where is the tension that nobody else has heard of except the one man running from pillar to post in a futile attempt to save himself from the criminal case he has entangled himself with for attempting to kidnap my wife and other acts of brigandage, for which he is now being prosecuted by the police.
“There is absolutely no tension anywhere in Nkanuland. Nobody from Nkanu has ever intervened or spoken to me about Ogbuanu. I challenge Ogbuanu to mention the name of anybody from Nkanu or elsewhere who has spoken to me about the Ogbuanu. That is because of his troublesome character and disrespect for law and order. This barefaced lie about Nkanu land has shown the character of the so-called Pastor. The Christian community should look into the use of the title of pastor as a cover for evil.”
The elder statesman, who maintained that the problem of the self-proclaimed pastor was self-inflicted, acknowledged that the issue with him started when he (Ogbuanu), began to unravel after purchasing a piece of land from a choice estate located at Independence Layout in the capital city, by going completely against the terms and agreement.
Explaining some of the details of the transaction and the development that followed, the former governor, who expressed regret over the matter, narrated how Ogbuanu, not only secretly stole into the estate, before the paperworks were completed by the Enugu State government, but attempted to totally deface the ambience.
“This was supposed to be a small estate with specific plan model of the prototype buildings. It was supposed to be a quiet ambience with few high-class residents. From the outset, I told him that the estate was not ready for physical structures yet and that nobody should start building until everything is ready. But this man used tricks on me to sign his papers on the ground that he needed it as evidence to his bank, who lent him money to purchase the land.
“This man did not only secretly move into the land, but guess what he was building – hostels – student hostels – in an environment that was supposed to be exclusive. This was after we had told him from the beginning that the land title required recertification in order to get a Certificate Of Occupancy because in 1975/76 when the land was gotten, the title then was a building lease. It was in1978 that the Land Use Act introduced the issuance of Certificate Of Occupancy.
“Secondly, because an estate has one global Certificate Of Occupancy, the subdivided plots will be issued with subleases, and that can only be done when the Certificate of Occupancy that is being processed is finally issued. Thirdly, the format and contents of deed of subleases for an estate is quite different from that of a stand-alone plot, and we had reached out to the Ministry of Lands and the Ministry of Housing for a format for Estates.
“Fourthly, we had arranged for an architectural and layout designs for the estate that would be submitted for approval to the Ministry of Lands and the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA), before any plot would be developed.
“As an elder statesman, I have always insisted on following the due process and getting all the required approvals from the relevant ministries before embarking on any construction. But Ogbuanu had a different dubious plan which manifested with his lawlessness and disregard for authorities. We explained all these to Ogbuanu and to others who bought plots of land in the estate. We also made it clear that we would refund the full purchase price to any buyer who would rather not wait for these processes to be completed.
“Few days after our agreement to wait for the C of O to be processed, Ogbuanu brought a power of Attorney and Deed which was prepared in the old company name, a company that had sold its interest and its title to the land to a different entity. He was told the futility and implication of having a document in the name of an entity that no longer have title to the land. He was reminded of our agreement to either wait for the recertification process with the Ministry of Lands to be completed or get his money back.
“Basil Ogbuanu told me and my wife that he borrowed money from a Nigerian bank and that the bank had asked him to bring evidence of what he spent the money on. My wife told him that she does not believe that a bank would lend him money without evidence of his net worth and evidence of what he wants to spend the money on. We then saw that story as the tale of a con man.
“Ogbuanu, who claimed to be a pastor, called on the phone and said he cried all night because the banks were chasing him and he had run to me and my wife as parents to please help by giving him evidence for the banks to set him free. When a pastor cried all night, then something serious must be happening. In my usual magnanimity, we agreed to sign his documents, but warned him to return them for the authentic and legal title documents.
“As soon as Basil Ogbuanu got those documents, he disappeared and his next move was to start building illegal structures in the form of hostels and a church – building mass houses in the form of commercial properties in a high-brow, low-density location. This was without any form of approval from the Estate, Ministry of Lands and Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority. We started receiving calls from other people who purchased plots in the Estate, complaining that Basil Ogbuanu was defacing the estate, and they all threatened to abandon their plots and leave the estate.
“They said they were scared of living with a miscreant in the same enclosed compound, especially in a small Estate. We got worried and reported to appropriate authorities, and unknown to us, the Capital Territory Authority had, in the course of their usual checks, seen the illegality committed by Ogbuanu and marked it. Based on the barrage of complaints, the Capital Territory Authority visited the Estate again and marked “Remove” on the illegal structures, and that was when the structures were almost at a foundation stage. Ogbuanu ignored the several warnings from the authorities, and continued with his construction of illegal building, in defiance of all government warnings.
“That is the simple story. Did this man tell the world how he practically kidnapped my wife and detained her. Did he state how the hooligans he harboured in that compound beat and stripped the policeman that accompanied her, when she went to carry out some landscaping inspection. Did he narrate how he was pleading at the police station after he was arrested at the airport when he tried to escape to Abuja after his criminal action??
“Did he state how he tell the world that I have been telling him from the beginning to come and take back his money, the full payment and that he has been running away? How come out of all the people that bought land in the estate he is the only one complaining? These are the questions Nigerians should ask him, particularly the media houses he has been running in his desperate bid to smear my name.
“Whoever knows Basil Ogbuanu should tell him that I’m prepared to give him back his money, even if it is in public. Let him come and collect his money. I regret listening to those who persuaded me to have anything to do with him, because I was warned. But even at that, no amount of blackmail can make him build in that estate, and no amount of campaign of calumny will save him from his self-inflicted criminal ordeal.”
