FALSEHOOD IS LIKE A HOT AIR, WHICH RISES FAST, CIRCULATES FAST, BUT WHEN THE AIR COOLS OFF AND SETTLES, THE WORLD BEGINS TO SEE THE TRUTH. THOSE WHO ALLOWED THEMSELVES TO BE USED TO SPREAD FALSE WILL END UP HIDING THEIR FACE IN SHAME.
THE CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES AND NUISSANCE OF BASIL OGBUANU
Sometime in 1976, before Jim Nwobodo became Governor of old Anambra state, he got a parcel of land in the name of one of his companies known as Linkana Hotels. This was four years before he joined politics and became the Governor of Old Anambra State. When he became a governor, he abandoned his plan of building the hotel for which he got the land, and abandoned everything about his private business and focused all his attention and effort on governance.
While he was busy with the affairs of the state, the people he entrusted with managing his assets took advantage of his absence from his private business, and stole his assets, including land and properties. Linkana Hotels land was not spared, as three quarters of the land was fraudulently sold, leaving him with just a tiny portion of the land he got in the 70s.
When the elder statesman retired to his hometown of Enugu and appointed some agents to recover and sale what was left of his assets, including Linkana land, Basil Ogbuani’s cousin, barrister Mrs Amaka Igwe connived with a young lawyer friend of Nwobodo’s family to manipulate their way into carving part of the Linkana land for themselves. Both Amaka Igwe and the lawyer (who passed away during the covid) went as far as using the court to force Nwobodo to give them part of the land as compensation for giving information about trespassers on this same land.
They were rebuked for bringing up such a frivolous matter, with no substance, and the matter failed. The late lawyer came to apologise to Nwobodo and asked for forgiveness, and confessing that Amaka Igwe was pushing and asking him to exploit his closeness with the Nwobodo family to extort a portion of land from the elder stateman.
After that incident, the whole land was acquired was acquired by Moss Island, and the title to the land was transferred to Moss Island, the current owner of the whole land. After the acquisition, the land was parcellated into plots and named Patson Estate. Some agents were engaged to market the plots, with a caveat that no plot of land should be sold to miscreant. After losing two thirds of his land to fraudsters, leaving him with very few plots, he was determined not allow miscreants and troublesome people to buy plots of land and become residents in the estate.
When Amaka, Basil Ogbuanu’s cousin, heard that the property was on the market, she approached Nwobodo’s wife and asking to be given the sole mandate to market and manage the whole estate. That approach was quickly declined based on the problem she tried to create with the land earlier. When she, Amaka, did not succeed with her antics to corner the land, she turned round and went to the agents and bought a plot of land. When Nwobodo heard it, he ordered the agents to refund her money immediately. Amaka Igwe refused to accept the refund, and became dodgy. She refused to pick calls from the agents and continued to dodge all attempts to reach her.
A few months after, Nwobodo discovered with dismay that the money was not refunded and asked that the land he bought be fenced. At that point, Basil Ogbuanu called Nwobodo’s wife and pleaded with her to arrange for him to speak with her husband, which Mrs Nwobodo did. Basil Ogbuanu spoke to the elder stateman, claiming to be a pastor of a big church and a man of God. He also said that his father in-law told him how kind and helpful Nwobodo was to him in his career.
When Ogbuanu finished with what sounded like preaching a sermon, Nwobodo reluctantly accepted and even gave him two plots of land, in place of one plot which he paid for. Soon after that, he Oguanu bought two additional plots, and Nwobodo accepted, giving him the benefit of doubt. While this was going on, he and Amaka his cousin and representative, were told that the title documents cannot be signed at that time for the following reasons:
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 been processed is finally issued.
Thirdly, the format and contents of deed of subleases for an estate is quite different from that of stand-alone plots, and we had reached out to the Ministry of lands and the Ministry Housing for a format for an approved format.
Fourthly, Nwobodo had arranged for an architectural and layout designs for the estate, that would be submitted for approval to the ministry lands and the Capital Territory, before any plot would be developed. Nwobodo, as an elder stateman, has been insisting on following 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 Amaka Igwe, his cousin, 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. Nwobodo made it clear, repeatedly to the agents that he does not trust this man who claim to be a pastor, because he has been warned by some well-meaning people to be careful with him. And that the money paid by Ogbuanu is ready to be refunded to him at any time he confirms what he was told about him.
Few days after our agreement to wait for the C Of O to be processed, Amaka Igwe brought a power of Attorney and Deed she prepared with the old company name, a company that had sold its interest and title to the land to a different entity. He was told the futility and implication having a document in the name of an entity that does 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 Nwobodo and his 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. Nwobodo’s wife told him that she does not believe that a bank would lend him money without evidence of his Networth and evidence of what he wants to spend the money on. Nwobodo then saw that story as a story of a con man.
Ogbuanu who claim to be a pastor called on the phone and said he cried all night because the banks were chasing him and he had ran to Nwobodo and his wife as parent 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. Nwobodo in his usual magnanimity and kindness agreed to sign his documents, but warned him to return for the authentic and legal title documents.
As soon as Basil Oguanu got those documents, he disappeared and his next move was to start building illegal structures in the form of hostels. Building mass houses in the form of commercial properties in a high brow, low density location. This was without any form of approvals from, the estate, Ministry of Lands and Capital Territory. We started receiving calls from other people who purchased plots in the state, complaining that Basil Ogbuani was defacing the estate, and they all threatened to abandon their plots and leave the estate. They said they were scared of living with miscreant in the same enclosed compound, especially in a small estate.
Nwobodo got worried and reported to appropriate authorities, and unknown to him the Capital Territory Authority had, in the course of their usual checks, seen the illegality committed by Ogbuanu and marked it. Base 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.
Nwobodo had all these while thought that Basil Ogbuanu had obeyed the orders of the various government authorities, and was not aware that Ogbuanu was still going on with illegality. On January 16, this year, Nwobodo’s wife, unaware of what was going on in this estate, took a landscape architect to the estate for tree planting. She was accompanied by a surveyor and a police family friend who visited their home and, on his way, back, Nwobodo’s wife asked him to accompany them to see the estate, because the estate is on his way back.
On getting to the entrance of the gate, the gateman was not at the gate house where he normally stayed, and the gate was locked. He was called on the phone and he said he was sick and cannot come, but that his wife would bring the keys to open the gate and let us in. We waited at the entrance for almost an hour for the gateman’s wife to come and she did not come. All of a sudden, we saw a young, with his clothes covered with white paint, coming to the gate from inside the estate. Nwobodo’s wife was scared and hesitant of going into a compound where a complete stranger had the keys. But because they were many, including a policeman, they drove into the estate and discovered that Ogbuanu continued to build in spite of several “Stop and Remove” orders. They asked the boy who opened the gate how he got the key that was supposed to be the custody of the gateman, he said that Basil Ogbuanu them the keys.
When Nwobodo’s wife was done showing the landscape engineer round, they drove back to the gate on their way out, but to their surprise, the gate was locked. They drove back and asked and asked the boy to open the gate and let them out, he said that Basil Ogbuanu gave them instruction to not let any of us leave the estate. Nwobodo’s wife asked him why they should not be allowed to leave; he said that Basil Ogbuanu instructed them not to let anyone into the estate, and if anyone comes in, the person should not be allowed to leave.
The police officer who was among those detained in the estate told the boy who locked the gate that he is a policeman and asked for the key. The boy called Ogbuanu on his phone speaker and we all heard Ogbuanu telling him not allow anyone out of the estate. When the policeman made attempt to take the key from the boy, a group of fierce looking boys rushed out from the uncompleted building where they were harboured and descended on the policeman in police uniform. They beat him up, tore his police uniform and covered his body with white paint, while they were beating the policeman, the rest of the criminal hiding in the building came towards the others, armed with dangerous weapons, and threatened to harm them.
Nwobodo’s wife was scared and phoned the police to come and rescue them from danger. She called her husband, who also made several calls and reported that his wife had been kidnapped. Within a few minutes the estate was surrounded by the police, who quickly broke the gate and rescued Nwobodo’s wife and the people who accompanied her to the estate. Some of those criminals were arrested, while the rest of them escaped through the fence. As they were leaving the estate, they saw Basil Ogbuanu standing at the entrance to the estate, and when he saw the police taking away the criminals he harboured in the estate, he ran away leaving his boys to their fate. Shortly after, Nwobodo arrived, and went with his wife and the others to make a formal report to the Independence Layout Police Station.
When the boys were interrogated, they said they acted on Basil Ogbuanu’s instruction, and they confirmed this in their written statements at the police station. The police then invited Ogbuanu over the phone, to the police station, and Ogbuanu said he was boarding a flight to Lagos. Knowing Ogbuanu’s antics and dishonesty, Nwobodo told the police that Ogbuanu was lying and that he might be hiding somewhere in Enugu. The police then tracked him with his phone number, and found him in Achara Layout Enugu. The police sent him a message to report at the Independence Layout Police Station Enugu.
While the police were waiting for him to report, Ogbuanu in his usual manner of disobeying government authorities, ignored the police invitation, and went to Enugu airport the next day to board a flight to Lagos. He tried to escape to Lagos and abandon the criminals he harboured, to their fate. Unfortunately for him, he was arrested at the airport, on a tip off by the police man his boy beat up. While Basil Ogbuanu was under arrest, he called the policeman aside and offered to give him money, so he would keep off and let him travel out of Enugu. The policeman refused, and Ogbuanu was taken to Independence Layout police station, where his boys were detained.
When he was taken to the police station, and interrogated, he tried to deny the boys, but for the boys’ written statements and the phone calls on speaker. He was also arraigned, detained and charged to court, where he was released on bail. Basil Ogbuanu is currently standing trial on criminal charges, and he on bail.
The story of Basil Ogbuanu’s criminal activities confirms the saying that “What Elder Saw Sitting Down, The Young Would Not See It While Standing Up”
The antecedents of Basil Ogbuanu AKA “Pastor “is typical of conman, and not the persona of a pastor or decent citizen of Nigeria.
What is the motive for assembling criminals to smuggle building materials into an estate to build at night, and harbouring criminals and Kidnappers in the estate, who threaten to kidnap innocent people.
What is the motive for compromising the security man employed by the owners of the estate to hand over the estate key to him?
What is the motive for changing the locks to the gate of an estate that does not belong to him; and appropriating the entire estate to himself and his criminal gangs?
What is the motive for denying the owners of the estate access to their estate while he continued to build at nights?
The Capital Territory had at a point gone to the estate, after several warnings, to confiscate the building materials stored in the estate for illegal structures, yet he continued with his illegal building, even after a final notice was given to him.
Ogbuanu violated all town planning regulations, and lost all sense of decency that makes it difficult for any decent person to share the same premises with him in an enclosure, and feel safe.
His lawlessness and criminality got to an unbelievable and an intolerable level on January 16 2026, the day he supervised the criminal hostage-taking of Her Excellency Dr. Pat Nwobodo, a policeman and two professionals who came to render services.
Ogbuanu compromised the security of the estate, when he locked the gate and ordered the criminals he harboured inside the uncompleted building in the Estate to beat up a policeman and the entire team that were inside the estate while he stayed at the gate to give orders for the manhandling of the team.
The other plot owners in the estate have also expressed grave concern about the character of Ogbuanu, stating that they are scared of living with such a dangerous character.
Ogbuanu went to court to institute frivolous civil case to save himself from the criminal charges against him, but he has failed, because he is still standing trial for criminal offence for harbouring criminals in an uncompleted building. This misbehaviour of Oguanu is one of the causes of insecurity in Nigeria.
Please disregard the social media propaganda by Ogbuanu, which he is using to frustrate his criminal prosecution. But the criminal prosecution against him will continue, and I will keep you informed.
