If
you have bought lands from Omonile in the past that do not have either a ( C/O)
or a Gazette in the following areas Ikeja, Opebi, Ogudu, Gbagada, Oregun,
Surulere, Anthony, Obanikoro, Adekunle Village.Isolo, Okota, Ilasamaja,
Ijeshatedo, Ojota, Bariga, Iju, Olowora, Isheri, Shangisha, Oworonsoki and
environs, Ojo, Ikotun, Egbe, Ejigbo, Shasha, Akowonjo, Okokomaiko, Owode
Onirin, Idimu, Egbeda and environs.Ayobo, Ipaja, Igando, Alagbado, Mebamu,
Ajangbadi and environs, Ikorodu, Badagry Axis, Lekki Axis (Eti-Osa to Abijo),
Ibeju Lekki to Epe & Epe Town and you haven’t been able to get a proper
document for your land, I have good and bad news for you.
The Bad news is that the Omonile has scammed you to sell lands that
belong to the government and masked it as their own family lands hereby making
you part with your money illegally and freely to them without any proper title
because they didn’t have any land to give and sell in the first place.
The Good news it that the Lagos state government has
decided not to demolish such houses or revoke those lands that has been
encroached on by Purchasers of this Bad Lands from Omonile and instead will
grant title to such Purchasers. This would afford those who unintentionally
bought government acquired land from Omonile or land Scammers the opportunity
to regularize their titles and thereby obtain Certificate of Occupancy (C of O)
through a process called Ratification Popularly Referred to as ‘RAT or
RATI’ ( Now referred to as Regularization).
NOW WHAT REALLY IS
RATIFICATION OR LAND REGULARIZATION IN LAGOS STATE?
According
to Land Bureau website “Ratification (now referred to as Regularisation)
is a policy of grace that avails squatters on uncommitted Government Land, the
opportunity to obtain legal title to the land encroached upon from the State
Government. It is the process of allocating Government land to someone who had
previously occupied landed property without lawful authority from the State
Government”
Regularisation is subject to two (2)
basic conditions:
(i)
That the property must not be situated in a Government Scheme, Estate or
Committed Area; and
(ii)
The property must be situated within an area that conforms with Urban and Regional
Planning regulations and standards of the State.
What
this means in plain English is that Omoniles have contributed terribly to
the sales of very bad lands that belongs to the Government to
unsuspecting buyers that did not do any proper search before they bought their
lands and because the lands purchased were defective from the start it will
be very difficult to process your papers at the Land Registry at Alausa because
they are illegal lands that shouldn’t have been bought from Omoniles and the Government
has every right to come and demolish any structure they find on the land.
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 extremely difficult for the
purchasers of this lands to get even a simple Survey Plan approved or lodged at
the Surveyor General’s office, talk less of owning a Certificate of Occupancy (
C/O) or an Approved Building Plan Or the Right to claim proper Ownership of the
Land legally. These people live in constant fear everyday of an impending
Demolition or Revocation.
HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PURCHASING A LAND UNDER GOVERNMENT ACQUISITION AND A
COMMITTED LANDS SO AS TO KNOW WHICH ONES CAN BE REGULARIZED
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 who have illegally
bought the Land from Omoniles 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.
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, you’re
on your own because they will never approve the papers and if you build a
property there, it will most certainly be demolished.
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When you buy a house in a committed
area, it is a certainty that house will be demolished
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So
because of these problems of 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 the Land Registry at Alausa
instead of Ratification. Regularization in other words is a process whereby
illegal owners of lands in areas 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 BUILT ON IT WILL MOST
CERTAINLY BE DEMOLISHED
So
shine your eyes before one Omonile lies to you that he has power to sign
your documents and the right to sell lands to you in those areas listed above
and many more areas that we dont know about yet. You will most certainly pay
Lagos state government double the sum you used to buy it illegally from
Omoniles. Always do land verification searches before you part with your money
illegally.
P:S:
For those coming across the word OMONILE for the first time, it’s a
derogatory slang given to Land Speculators and Grabbers who specialize in
reselling other people’s lands or duping people off their money under the guise
of selling hereditary lands owned by their forefathers.
Courtesy : Barrister Mathew Ottah
