As hearing on a high profile land dispute commenced at an Enugu State High Court, it has emerged that the major defendants in the suit, Senator Jim Nwobodo and his wife, Patricia are disposed to activating the Alternative Dispute Resolution(ADR) mechanism.
Chief Chuma Oguejiofor, who is the Counsel to Nwobodo dropped the hint in a chat with journalists after the Court session, Thursday July 16, saying that his clients would not spurn any opportunity of using the ADR if made available.
A Lagos-based business man and investor, Dr Basil Ogbuanu had dragged Nwobodo overnor of old Anambra State and his wife to court claiming N5.8 billion damages over the destruction of his buildings on a disputed land.
Three companies owned by the Nwobodos that were used in the N235 million land deal were also joined in the suit, as well as three public officers in the Enugu State Ministry of Lands.
Though their counsel affirmed that the former governor of old Anambra State and his wife were open to ADR, he said that they would not take the initiative as, according to him, the plaintiff should be the one to make the move.
However, a member of the legal team of the plaintiff, while fielding questions from journalists, Mr. Olisa Igweike, said that it was possible that the parties might have discussed the issue prior to the commencement of hearing but could not reach agreement.
At the commencement of the hearing of the case marked E/328/2026, the defendants formally notified the presiding judge, Justice C.C Ani of the change in their legal representation.
It was gathered that the Nwobodos had initially briefed Iyom A.J. Offiah, SAN, to represent them and their three firms – Linkana Hotels Limited, Millennium Construction & Estate Developers Limited, and Moss Island Limited.
But following the change of baton in the legal representation for the first, second, third, seventh, and ninth defendants, the new counsel, Chief Chuma Oguejiofor, informed the court of the actions he had taken. He said that he had withdrawn all the originating processes filed by the former counsel and replaced them with fresh applications.
Lead counsel to the plaintiff, Onyechi Araka, did not oppose any of the fresh applications filed by defence counsel. However, he asked the Court to grant his team enough time to study the applications and file their response.
Justice Ani granted the request given the constitutionally established right to fair hearing and consequently adjourned the case to October 22, 2026 for further hearing.
The multiple applications filed by the defence counsel were all targeted at killing-off the suit at the onset without giving room for hearing of its merit. In the applications the defendants challenged the Court’s jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
They also contended that the originating processes filed by the plaintiff were not properly served on the defendants and that pre-action notice were not even served on the public officers as required by law.
According to the defence counsel, the improper service of originating processes served on the public officers joined in the suit constituted a major flaw to cripple the matter at the preliminary stage.
He also pointed out that the corporate entities included as defendants were no served personally as required by law while the police who were accused by the plaintiff of pulling down his buildings with bulldozer were not joined in the suit.
In addition, the defence team picked holes in the suit, describing it as abuse of court processes on the ground that “similar” Suit No. E/244/2025 had already been filed by Nwobodo and wife against Ogbuanu over the same land issue.
Ogbuanu, who is the CEO of Second Coming Nigeria Limited, a major player in Nigeria’s LPG market, is in court asking for N5.8 billion damages against Nwobodo and the other defendants. The legal dispute arose five years after he had purchased the four plots of land at Nwobodo’s Patson Estate Independent Layout Enugu.
In the suit filed by his counsel, Chukwudi Obieze, SAN, the investor averred that he had paid for plots R/18, R/19, R/20, and R/20 “in good faith, honesty, and upon furnished consideration to the vendor”.
However, the plaintiff alleged that while building construction was going on the plots of land Mrs. Nwobodo “invaded” the site on January 16 and 17, 2026 and carried out “illegal, malicious destruction” of his nearly completed buildings.
