Oyegbola, described the act as illegal and obnoxious implementation of the Land Use Act 2004.

He said, “The Land Use Act has good concept going by what it entails but the Chief Executive Officers of some of our states are now using it wrongly. ‎They acquire lands in different locations for the purpose of development but they end up using it for something else.

“Some of these plots of land are already subjects of litigation and this will definitely cause problems for generations yet unborn. The institution is concerned about the activities of this land grabber because they are disturbing our operations.”

Oyegbola also described as worrisome the ways land grabbers popularly referred to as ‘Omo-onile’ prevent surveyors from carrying out their duties.

“There are instances when our men have to go to site with policemen for them to feel safe.‎ The recent step taken by the Lagos state government will definitely help curb their activities and other state governors need to emulate Lagos in this regard”, he said.

The Institution President also appealed to the governors to come up with laws that would check the excesses of land grabbers as being done in Lagos state.

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Examples of Bad lands people purchased from Omoniles include lands under Government Acquisitions, Lands Government intend to build estates, drainages, roads, Government Schemes, pipelines, high tensions, bad layouts and general lands or property that do not conform with the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning Regulations .

Because of the sale of these bad lands, it has been very very difficult for the purchasers of this lands to Get even a simple Survey Plan approved or lodged at the Surveyor General’s office, talkless of owning a Certificate of Occupancy ( C/O) or an Approved Building Plan Or the Right to claim proper Ownership of the Land legally and they live in constant fear everyday of an impending Demolition or Revocation.

Also it is pertinent here to explain two concepts that affect the issue of Ratification or Regularization before I move on And it has to do with the differences between Owning Lands Under Government Acquisition and Committed Lands .

A Land under Government acquisition is a land acquired by the Government for its own specific use and there are plans for these lands in the nearest future depending on what the Government intends to do with the land. These lands have been acquired for years by the government and its at the Government’s discretion to release those lands to people or not depending on if they need to use the lands for a specific purpose or not and if the release of those acquired lands to the people will not disrupt any regional or urban planning regulation and the Government can cover eye to that Land.

Meanwhile A Committed Land is a land the Government already has Plans for and nothing in this life will make the Government alter its mind to give up that land. Such lands include lands earmarked for Government estates, Roads, Government Schemes etc. In fact if you buy a land in a committed Area, Your on your own because they will never approve the papers and if you build a property there, it will most certainly be demolished.

So because of these problems land owners who bought lands illegally from The Dreaded Omoniles under Government Acquisition, the Lagos state Government decided to take an Inventory of all unlawful structures erected in areas under Government acquisition and endorsed a decision that all prohibited structures erected on Land under Government acquisition which were not blocking roads, drainage and not located in Committed Areas should have the opportunity to process their papers and be granted building plan approvals and also assist the Government to provide for more housing developments for low income earners. This decision of approving the processing of getting their papers in Lands under Government acquisition gave birth to the process of Ratification and Regularization of owning lands within Non committed Government Acquisition.

Today it is now known as Regularization officially at Alausa instead of Ratification and Regularization is a process whereby illegal owners of lands in places Under Government acquisition that are not Committed lands are given the opportunity to obtain a legal title to the land encroached or trespassed upon from the State Government.

To simplify it, it means the process of allocating Government Land to someone who had previously occupied landed property without lawful authority from the State Government but it is subject to 7 Conditions:

1. That the property must not be situated in a Government Scheme, Estate or Committed area

2. The Property must be situated within an Area that conforms to Urban and Regional Planning Regulations and Standard of the State.

3. The Appropriate Set back of the Land must be observed.

4. The Appropriate distances from drainages, Canals, NNPC pipelines, Gas Pipelines, NEPA transformers, High Tension Wires, Water Pipelines and other restrictions laid down by the Physical Planning and Town Planning.

5. The land must not fall on road Alignment

6. The land must not fall within a Committed Government Area

7. The Land must fall within the Permitted Regularization Areas

These days it has been extended to areas without development schemes/layout plans and areas without Unplanned Developments. Example of such areas include: Okota, Ketu, Ikorodu, Badagry etc.

So if you have bought a land that runs afoul of these 7 Conditions You have yourself to blame because you refused to do a proper Land Search and Your land will either be revoked or the House on it will most certainly be demolished.

The Procedure for Regularization or Ratification of Title

(Important Notice) If your land is under Government Acquisition, you must do a survey plan and take it to the Surveyor General’s office to chart it to know if it is under Government Acquisition to know if it falls under the lands that can be ratified. If you haven’t done so please do so to know your land status.

So the Procedure to ratify your land includes thus:

1. The Applicant submits an application for processing to the Directorate of Land Regularization under the Ministry of Land also known as the DLR.

2. The DLR will chart the Survey plan and thereafter carry out a physical site inspection of the Land

3. If the Report of the Site Inspection is approved, the DLR processes the file further by raising a demand Notice for payment for land charges.

4. Upon payment of land charges by the Application (evidenced by the Treasury Receipt) the DLR Prepares the Letter of Allocation (Including the C of O) and forwards the Letter of Allocation to the Executive Secretary Land Use and Allocation Directorate for endorsement. The Letter of Allocation is thereafter released to the applicant.

5. The Applicant’s file containing the C/O is sent through the Permanent Secretary to the Honourable Commissioner for Land for Execution and after it has been executed the C/O is processed for Stamp Duty and Registration and released to the Applicant by the Honourable Commissioner for Lands.

Below are the Documents and Requirements of the Applicant for the Regularization of His Land

1. A Covering letter by the Agent or person filing the application for Regularization must accompany the Application and must contain all the personal details of the Applicant.

2. A duly completed application form to be sworn to before a magistrate or notary public duly signed and dated.

3. Submit 4 Passport sized Photographs of the Applicant

4. Land Information Certificate

5. Photocopy of Purchase Receipt duly stamped

6. N100 Current Special Development Levy

7. Tax Clearance Certificate

8. Sketch Map of the Site Location

9. Original Survey Plan (Which must have the Consent to Survey Number and Stamp) >>>> Will address the meaning of this with examples in my Next Article

10. Photograph of the Property

11. One Original Copy of the Deed of Assignment

12. Administration Fee: N4000

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In a statement of claim, the children, led by Mrs Alaba Ogbe stated that their father during his lifetime owns many properties in Lagos and in other places and that at the time of the death of their father it was not all the properties belonging to their deceased father that was known to all the children.

They claimed that the 1st defendant (MRS) who is a trespasser on the property at No. 8 Macarthy Street Lagos, has refused, failed and neglected to hand over possession of the said property despite their repeated demands.

Apart from the 1st defendants, other defendants in the suit are Lagos State Development and Property Corporation, Lagos state Government and Attorney General of Lagos State.

“The claimants aver that their father, Late Chief Roberts Bomah Onyebolise exercised his ownership right on the said property unchallenged, during his life time. The claimants aver that upon a further search, it was discovered that the defendant herein is in possession of the said property without authorisation”, they stated.

As a result, the claimants are seeking for a declaration that the being the surviving children and the lawful beneficiaries of the estate of late Onyebolise are the persons entitled to the ownership and right of occupancy of the property.
They also want the court to declare that they have not transferred any of those rights of ownership or possession to the defendant or indeed any other person as well as an order for them to give up possession.

However, in its statement of defence, the 1st defendant, contends that the claimants have no locus standi to institute action as they are not the administrators of the estate of Chief Robert Bomah Onyebolise (deceased) whose alleged interest in the property in dispute they are seeking to enforce.

The oil firm claimed that they are occupying the property as a tenant or lessee of the Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (2nd defendants) which is the owner of the said property.

“The 1st defendant therefore states that the claimants have sued the wrong party in this action, since the 1st defendant is not the owner of the property which is the subject-matter of this suit”, it stated, urging the court to strike out or dismiss the suit for lack of merit.

The 2nd defendant also stated that the land which the subject matter of the suit was alongside some other properties acquired by the Lagos State Government in 1976 by virtue of Lagos State Government Notice No. 296, dated Agust 10, 1976.

“The 2nd defendant states further that the Notice of Acquisition was duly served on the occupiers of the affected land while the Notice of Acquisition was pasted on those lands whose occupiers could not be immediately located. In order to ensure that the notice of the said acquisition was properly given to those whose interests are likely to be affected, a general notice of acquisition was also published in the daily national newspaper as well as the State Government Official Gazette No. 50 vol. 9 of 1976”, they claimed, adding that the 1976 acquisition was made in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Public Land Acquisition Law cap. 113.

They argued that the statutory rights of the claimants have been extinguished as they, through their predecessors deliberately ignored the notice of acquisition by failing to put forward any claim in the property, adding that they may only be entitled to payment of compensation.

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