The Founder of the United Business Women Association (UBWA), Chief Amb. Nkiruka Duru, has denied the recent allegations circulating on social media that she was involved in a fraudulent land investment scheme involving over N200 million.
Describing the claims as baseless and malicious, Duru stated that the allegations were the result of the malicious actions of detractors aimed at tarnishing her reputation and causing unwarranted public outrage.
In a statement signed by Duru, she expressed deep disappointment that her philanthropic efforts to uplift the lives of widows and women across Nigeria had been undermined by a series of falsehoods, particularly concerning the controversial Achala land deal.
The allegations also implicated the late Uju Ezeobi, a former member of UBWA who had served as the organization’s legal adviser.
Duru recalled that UBWA, founded in February 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, had started out with the goal of providing palliative support to widows and underprivileged women across various local government areas in Anambra and later expanded to other states and beyond.
However, she said it was in 2021 when Uju Ezeobi, whom she said claimed to be a lawyer, approached her and offered to collaborate with the organisation on a land acquisition project.
According to her, the idea behind the Achala Land Investment was to acquire land in the Achala community of Awka North Local Government Area, with the intention of developing a UBWA estate for its members.
Duru explained that after conducting due diligence through Ezeobi, the association moved forward with the purchase of land, paying a total of N101 million to a local realtor, Mr. Okechukwu Okoye, who promised to facilitate the sale of 2,000 plots.
She noted that the plots were priced at N250,000 for UBWA members and N300,000 for non-members.
She, however, alleged it soon became apparent that Okoye had misappropriated the funds, with the Achalla community rejecting the transaction and denying UBWA access to the land.
Duru alleged that Okoye had failed to deliver the promised land, and the community claimed that no payment had been made to them.
Despite this setback, Duru stated that she continued her efforts to ensure the money was properly accounted for, even took the matter to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in July 2024.
Duru further detailed how, in 2023, Uju Ezeobi was entrusted with handling a secondary land acquisition from the Umudiana family in Achalla. At that time, Duru was reportedly ill and delegated the responsibility of managing the sale to Ezeobi and the UBWA Secretary, Mrs. Chinwe Ekunie.
However, Duru alleged that she soon discovered that Ezeobi had increased the land prices without approval, raising the amount from N360,000 to N520,000 per plot, in violation of UBWA’s pricing policy.
Ezeobi was also accused of forging signatures and removing Duru from the land’s bank account.
The statement read, “I told Uju Ezeobi as one of our lawyers, and she told me to give her two weeks to make inquiries. After the expiration of two weeks, Uju Ezeobi said UBWA can go ahead and purchase.
“I told Mr Okechukwu Okoye to give us the power of attorney and an account number to pay in instalments. When Mr Okechukwu Okoye provided his personal account number, I told Uju Ezeobi about it, which she approved, saying that it would not be a problem since, according to her inquiry, the man was a middleman for the Achalla community.
“Mr Okechukwu Okoye sold the land to me at the rate of 200,000 naira per plot and we told UBWA Members to pay 250,000 naira for each plot while we told non-members to pay 300,000 naira for each.
“After some time, Uju Ezeobi pleaded that there were about 60 persons (non-members) she would bring saying that I should allow her to pay at the rate of 250,000 naira after refusing initially I accepted only for her to be collecting higher sums of money from those people but remitting at the rate of 250,000 for those 60 plots or more.
“After paying up to 101 million naira to Mr Okechukwu Okoye, we decided to take possession of the land he showed us at least to the tune of how much we have paid telling him that we may settle for 600 plots until later only to discover that Mr Okechukwu Okoye had syphoned the whole money without giving any money to Achalla Community/land owners. The community refused us access, saying that Okoye had given them no money. That was how our millions of naira went into limbo.
“Before we caught Mr Okechukwu Okoye, he paid 11 million naira to Umudiana family in Achalla for a fresh land bargain and rushed to the court to file a suit against me Nkiruka Duru and Uju Ezeobi as Defendants accusing us of not paying for up to 2000 plots of land that UBWA promised to buy.
“I took this matter of the remaining 90 million naira to EFCC in July 2024, and Uju Ezeobi was very much aware of it. In fact, she had been helping me to explain to our members through UBWA WhatsApp platforms to exercise patience on the first land matter with updates.
“So which land fraud of 200 million naira land investment did Uju Ezeobi or her accomplices or the writer of those articles uncover or report to police or divert according to that malicious publication?
“Let me tell you how Uju Ezeobi got herself into trouble because of greed. When the first land got into problem in 2022, in 2023 Mr Okechukwu Okoye secured the 11 million naira land from Umudiana family Achalla and gave it to us at 200,000, we decided to give it to interested UBWA Members at 360,000 naira by then I have been afflicted with a poisonous sickness and I was almost dying, so I delegated Uju Ezeobi and UBWA Secretary, Mrs Chinwe Ekunie to handle the sale of the new Umudiana family Achalla Land.
“Uju Ezeobi told the Secretary Mrs Chinwe Ekunie to provide her account (Sonia Global), made herself a co-signatory to the Sonia Global bank account. Uju Ezeobi also removed my name as signatory to the land documents, Uju removed my son’s name as signatory and forged the signature of my elder sister, who was also a signatory to the land documents. She did all these without my consent, claiming that she did it to enable easy access to funds and land documentation because I was not readily available due to illness.
“What broke the camel’s back was that Uju Ezeobi went against our organisation’s policy by increasing the price of land because our rule at all the places we had acquired or sold land be it at Urum, Delta, Kuje, Nasarawa, etc. managed by other UBWA lawyers which had no issues is that once we fix a price for members it cannot change no matter how long it takes to sell off those plots of land.
“I was observing the UBWA WhatsApp platform and saw that Uju raised the amount from 360,000 naira to 420,000 naira. When I queried her, she said that Achalla youths demanded extra money for settlement. After a while, Uju raised the amount again to 520,000 naira, and I could no longer tolerate that.”
On Saturday, March 29, 2025, SaharaReporters reported that Uju Ezeobi, a complainant of an alleged multi-million-naira land scam involving Duru had been allegedly tortured to death while in custody at Nigeria Police Zonal Headquarters (Zone 13), Ukpo, Anambra State.
Uju’s death came a few hours after her legal representatives, led by Okolo Ejike Esq, petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, over alleged inhumane treatment against her.
The petition had detailed how certain officers, led by SP Utazi, had been working in collaboration with Duru and her associates to intimidate and detain the complainant unjustly.
“She is dead, she’s the complainant against a suspect, Mrs Nkiruka Duru, who is facing trial over a multi-million-naira land scam. Duru has finally succeeded in using the instruments of Police to kill Mrs Uju Ezeobi at Zone 13,” a source said.
SaharaReporters learnt that the case dated back to 2021 when Mrs Duru, the president of the United Business Women Association, allegedly lured investors into purchasing land in Achala.