Former Governor of old Anambra State, Jim Nwobodo has instituted a N20 billion libel suit against a Lagos-based businessman, Basil Ogbuanu.

Joined in the suit filed at the Enugu High Court were Ogbuanu, a national daily and four others. He claimed that Ogbuanu instigated some reports in the media that had put him in the bad light and prayed for an order of court for retraction, public apologies and compensation of N20 billion for the inconveniences he had been put through.

The suit was filed on his behalf by his Counsel, Chuma Oguejiofor.

Nwobodo and Ogbuanu have been locked in bitter quarrel for sometime now over a piece of land allegedly sold to the businessman by the Nwobodo family.

The matter over the sale of the land is still a subject at the Enugu High Court, filed by Ogbuanu.

But in a latest twist of events, Nwobodo is claiming before the court the Ogbuanu had gone further from his suit to defame him through some media reports.

He asked for 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”, he said

Narrating his ordeal in the hands of the businessman in the suit, Nwobodo 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.

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, allegedly without approval of the relevant authorities to do so. He added that he reportedly got his fingers burnt when the structures he was erecting, got demolished by the government.

He claimed that instead of blaming himself for his ordeal, he (Ogbuanu) took his fate out on him (Nwobodo) by launching media campaigns, which had now injured his image.

He had further told the court: “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.

“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.

“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
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“That the 1st 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 1st defendant”, he claimed

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 1st 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 1st 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”.