21st May, 2012
The Lagos State Ministry of Lands Bureau has generated N3.5 billion from the issuing of Governor’s Consent on land to property buyers in the last one year.
Permanent Secretary, Lands Bureau, Hakeem Muri-Okunola, disclosed this during a ministerial press briefing last week in Lagos, southwest Nigeria.
Muri-Okunola said since the procedure for processing Governor’s consent was transformed in 2005 with the introduction of the 30 days consent policy, there had been increase in applications and revenue generated by the state government.
“The expected target for the year was N3 billion and a total of N3.584 billion was generated in the year 2011, putting the Lands Service Directorate’s performance at 199 percent.
He, however, warned unscrupulous individuals and communities who engaged in indiscriminate sale of acquired government land to desist from the act.
The permanent secretary said it had been discovered that the dubious land speculators with the support of some traditional rulers are selling government land to unsuspecting members of the public.
He said the state government had recently taken notice of criminal activities of the people in Omole Scheme II (under the bridge) and Magodo ‘B’ series along the canal and cemetery area of Magodo among others.
According to him, “the public is hereby warned to be wary of these questionable land speculators who go about with fake land titles and false claims that acquired Government land belongs to them and their families.”
While stressing that unsuspecting members of the public have been defrauded in this way, Muri-Okunola implored members of the public and persons intending to acquire land in the aforementioned areas or in deed any part of the state to ascertain the status of such land from the state’s Surveyor-General’s office, the Land Registry or the Land Use and Allocation Committee (LUAC) at the state Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja, before purchase.