The National Assembly has been called upon to enact legislation that would prevent the arbitrary revocation of land allocations in Abuja.
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Festus Uwakhemen, a realtor and member of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), made the appeal in a statement issued on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said the proposed legislation would provide property owners in the nation’s capital with greater assurance that their land titles cannot be indiscriminately revoked by successive administrations.
According to Uwakhemen of National Assembly, the call for a new law has become necessary due to frequent instances where Federal Capital Territory (FCT) ministers revoke land allocations approved by their predecessors—a situation he said has adversely affected individuals and corporate organizations.
“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.”
He further noted that restricting arbitrary revocations would also promote greater accountability in land administration.
“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,” he added.
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