Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has ordered complete excision on untitled land across the State.
The Governor who gave the order at the ongoing Lagos Real Estate Market Place Conference and Exhibitions in Victoria Island noted that the exercise would enable the State Government to carry out documented delineation on communal land and land owned by the families.
He expressed optimism that at the end of the exercise, the issues of land grabbing by thugs working for land owners would be curbed.
Land is a limited asset in Lagos, which is a coastal State. Activities of land-grabbers have created an unpredictable climate in land acquisition in Lagos, robbing private real estate investors and individuals of fortunes.
He said a technical committee will be set up to fine-tune the framework for the excision process on untitled land, with the objective to granting Certificate of Occupancy (C-of-O) to land owners for transparent sales of the asset.
The Governor condemned efforts by some government workers to frustrate and sabotage the full take-off of the State’s Enterprise Geographic Information System (e-GIS) introduced to automate approval of land surveys and allocation titles under one roof and warned that his administration would not hesitate in purging such saboteurs from the system.
He said: I’ve made up my mind that we are going to do excision for untitled land. This process will kick off next year and we will set up a committee whose composition will represent all traditional divisions in Lagos. With equity and fairness, we will yield proper titles on all the land, so that the issue of land grabbing can be reduced to minimum.
“We will also be carrying out genuine reform in our Survey Department. We need to have our e-GIS platform up and running after 10 years that it was initiated. I’m expressing my disappointment in some Government officials sabotaging these efforts. I will look for the culprits and I will be ruthless in meting out punishment. I will ensure these saboteurs have no place in my Government.”
Governor Sanwo-Olu also announced that from next year, his administration intends to introduce a policy of monthly tenancy on property occupancy.
The concept, he said, is not to punish landlords or reduce the expected revenue of the property owner, but to ease off pressure of yearly rent on tenants, who will be able to pay their rents according to their monthly earnings.
According to the Governor, the policy, emanated from an agreement reached by association of tenants, consortium of financiers and the Government.
