Olushola Omogbehin
A Nigerian has called on National Assembly to make law that would prevent the arbitrary revocation of land allocations in Abuja.
A realtor and member of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), Festus Uwakhemen, made this call in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to him, the legislation as he proposed, would enable property owners in the FCT with higher assurance that their land titles cannot be indiscriminately revoked by successive administrations.
He said this call is necessary because of many instances where the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) revoke land allocations approved by their predecessors which have affected individuals and corporate organizations negatively.
“The National Assembly has to pass a law that when a minister has approved any land, in principle or either through a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O), no other minister has the power to revoke the land except if the land passes through the National Assembly.
“With that, we are going to have sanity. But if that is not passed, every minister has the power to revoke. They can come to your house and say your house is on the waterways. That is why people in the FCT keep having issues of revocation. You’ll see a big estate, and they’ll just come and say the land has been removed because the minister seeks to have the gavel.
“When the minister can allocate but cannot revoke arbitrarily, he will think very carefully before granting approval to any allocation, knowing fully well that if that allocation has to be revoked, it must pass through channels that may not be easily influenced.”
