Land Classification:
Land can be classified as either free or acquired. A parcel of land is considered free
if the government has not indicated any interest whatsoever in that land. Such land
is safe to buy because the title on the land can be perfected without issues.
In most cases, such lands will either have a gazette, a C of O or a governor’s
consent.
Now that you understand what it means for land to be free, you should also know
that all lands that fall within areas that are designated as ‘urban areas’ are under
government acquisition until deemed committed or free.
There are two types of acquisition:
1. Committed Acquisition
2. Global / General Acquisition.
Committed Acquisition
A parcel of land is said to be under committed acquisition when the government has
indicated an intention to use that land for a specific purpose such as provision of
amenities.
Such lands belong to the government and can never be available for use by
individuals. If you purchase land that is under committed acquisition, it will be
impossible for you to perfect your land title and you’ll only be occupying the land
until the government comes to kick you out.
Global or General Acquisition
Lands that are under “general acquisition” or “global acquisition” can later be
confirmed ‘free’ or ‘committed’ as the case may be.
A land under general acquisition can become free by a process called excision.
“Excision is a process whereby the government releases a portion of an expanse of
land that is not committed” If a parcel of land that was formerly under acquisition
becomes excised; it is then considered free and becomes gazetted. The gazette then becomes the title on the land and such land is safe to buy because
a proper title can be processed on the land.
A second case where lands under general acquisition can be released is if an
individual purchased a land that was under acquisition without going through an
excision process.
Such lands can go through another process called “ratification” or “regularization” in
which the land owner pays for the land to be ratified or regularized. The only
conditions in this case are that the land in question must not fall within a committed
area and that the purpose for which the land was bought does not disrupt the
original plan of the state.
Conditions for ratification may differ from state to state.
Now that you understand the classification of land, lets now look at meaning of each land documents that we have.
DEED OF ASSIGNMENTS
Most people have the title documents to their cars intact and in safe places but fail
to ask for the Deed of assignment to their properties which is several times more
valuable than cars
A Deed of assignment is one of the transactional document drawn up by a real
estate attorney between the current title holder for a particular property and the
new buyer.
In real property transactions, a deed of assignment is a legal document that
transfers the interest of the owner of that interest to the person to whom it is
assigned, the assignee. When ownership is transferred, the deed of assignment
shows the new legal owner of the property.
The deed contains very pertinent information for a real estate transaction. It spells
out the date when the ownership of the property transfers from one owner to the
other. The deed also gives a specific description of the property that is included in
the transfer of ownership.
It is very compulsory and mandatory for a Deed of Assignment document to be
recorded at the appropriate land registry to show legal evidence as to the exchange
of ownership in any land/landed property transaction in order to make the general
public and government aware of such exchange or transaction.
Any recorded Deed of Assignment at the appropriate land registry will be
authenticated in form of either a Governor’s consent or Registered Conveyance after
it has been stamped at the Stamp Duties office.
It is important to Note that the deed of assignment document is not the only
document indicating transfer of owner.
The following documents are usually involved when a purchase is made.
1. The purchase receipt
2. The contract of sale and
3. The deed of assignment
4. The survey plan
5. The Building plan for housing investment
6. Any other title document that may apply
Each of these documents can come at separate times in the transaction process. The
seller signs all documents when the transaction is complete and hands over the
documents to the buyer.
SURVEY PLAN
A Survey plan is a document that measures the boundary of a parcel of land to give
an accurate measurement and description of that land. The people that handle
survey issues are Surveyors and they are regulated by the office of the Surveyor
general in Lagos as it relates to survey issues in Lagos. A survey plan must contain
the following information:
1. The name of the owner of the land surveyed
2. The Address or description of the land surveyed
3. The size of the land surveyed
4. The drawn out portion of the land survey and mapped out on the survey plan
document
5. The beacon numbers
6. The surveyor who drew up the survey plan and the date it was drawn up
7. A stamp showing the land is either free from Government acquisition or not
EXCISION
An Excision means basically taking a part from a whole and that part that has been
excised will be recorded and documented in the official government gazette of that
state. In other words, not having an excision means the land could be seized by the
Government anytime without compensating you even if you bought it “Legitimately”
from the Baale or the Original dwellers on the land.
GAZETTE
A Gazette is an Official record book where all special government details are spelt
out, detailed and recorded
A gazette will show the communities or villages that have been granted excision and
the number of acres or hectares of land that the government has given to them. It is
within those excised acres or hectares that the traditional family is entitled to sell its
lands to the public and not anything outside those hectares of land given or excised
to them.
A Gazette is a very powerful instrument the community owns and can replace a
Certificate of Occupancy to grant title to the Villagers. A community owning a
gazette can only sell lands to an individual within those lands that have been excised
to them and the community or family head of that land has the right to sign your
documents for you if you purchase lands within those excised acres or hectares of
land.
If the government based on some reasons best known to them decides to revoke or
acquire your land, you will be entitled to compensation as long as it’s within the
Excised lands given to that community.ad land to buy.
The best way to know whether a land is under acquisition or has an excision that
has been covered by a Gazette is to get a surveyor to chart the site and take it to
the surveyor general’s office to do a land information to confirm whether it falls
within the gazette and spell out which particular location it can be found.
Relationship between Excision and Gazette
So for example if in 1981, Victoria Island, Ikoyi and Lekki were all part of one big
Community joined together called Oniru and it had no separation to know which
area is called ikoyi, Lekki or V.I then, and it has an approximate total area square
meters estimate of 100,000 square meters and the Government is interested in that
area and decides to take 70,000 square meters for its self for its own personal use
as an Urban Area or public purpose, it will record this acquisition in the official
government which is Gazette and also record that the remaining 30,000 square
meters (EXCISED PORTION) has been left alone for the traditional family to have
and do with it whatever it pleases it to do. This is the sweet relationship between a
land under acquisition, an excision and gazette.
CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY
A Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) issued by the Lagos State Government officially
leased Lagos land to you, the applicant, for 99 yrs. All lands belong to the
Government.
GOVERRNOR'S CONSENT
So many Academicians, Lawyers and Intellectuals have tried to define what a
Governor’s Consent is and they end up confusing simple minded men like me with
their Big Big Grammar, so am going to attempt to do the impossible by breaking its
meaning down and how it operates under the law.
A simple formula to follow is this. The first person on a Virgin Land that has neither
been occupied neither by another person nor under acquisition by the Government is
entitled to get a Certificate of Occupancy on that land.
If that person with the C of O decides to sell his land to another person after so
many years, that person must now obtain the Consent of the Governor before that
transaction can be deemed legal in the eyes of the Government. If the new buyer.
now decides to sell the land again to a third owner in future, that Third owner must
also obtain a new Consent of the Governor before that transaction can be deemed
legal in the eyes of the Government and the process continues every time the
property changes hands to a new buyer.
In other words, the first person on a land is the only person or group of persons
entitled to obtain a Certificate of Occupancy. Every subsequent buyer of that land
must get a Governor’s consent. There can only be one (1) Owner of the Certificate
of Occupancy on that Land and it will not be replicated for another person once the
land has been sold or transferred to another person.
The powers of the Governor to Consent to such transactions can be found in Section
22. Of the LAND USE ACT 1978 as amended this states thus:
“It shall not be lawful for the holder of a statutory right of occupancy granted by
the Governor to alienate his right of occupancy or any part thereof by assignment,
mortgage, and transfer of possession, sublease or otherwise howsoever without the
consent of the Governor first had and obtained”With this power, the Governor has the right to grant consent to any transaction
which it thinks has not contravened any Law of the land and if the consent has been obtained fraudulently, the Governor is entitled to revoke such consent immediately.
It is very important for a purchaser of land to perfect his or her document by
obtaining a Governors consent so as to have a complete rest of mind. Although its
good to buy a land that already has a Global C of O or the Land has a Gazette, it still
doesn’t give you the full satisfaction that you own the land without any form of fear
or intrusion by the land owners. Your documents have not been perfected and the
consent of the Governor to that transaction has not been obtained.
Disadvantages and Problems of Getting Governors Consent
Obtaining a Governors Consent from the Land Bureau isn’t the easiest thing to get
quickly despite the importance attached to it and urgency needed to secure a land
from land owners. On the Government website, it is stated that a Governors Consent
can be obtained in 30 days but that has proven to be very untrue due to
unscrupulous civil servants who would do everything to frustrate the process of
obtaining the document without giving them huge kickbacks. A Governors consent
that should cost N200,000 naturally could end up costing N600,000 Due to
kickbacks, , Bribes, P.R etc and that 30 days could translate to 6 months or a year.
In all, a Governors Consent is a very good document to obtain and I advise you to
get it so as to free yourself from land owner 100%. An advantage of having a
Governor’s consent is that you can transfer your land to another person without
going to the land owner or Family Baale to sign your deed and Form 1c which are
compulsory requirements needed before you can process Governors consent. The
land owner pray seriously for the Owner not to have a Governors consent so that they
can make a lot of money running into their Thousands whenever the Owner require
the signatures of the family to start the Governors consent.
Do you now see why C of O is not the ultimate? Stepping aside the criticism of those
in charge of processing the C of O, You should try as much as possible to get a
Governors Consent for all your genuine lands so as to eliminate land owner completely
and live a straight forward life devoid of land owner problems.
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