We should endeavor to involve government with respect to land transactions and also respect the scheme plans in individual communities inorder to aid development.
We should desist from involving greed in every decision making of ours as regards family land.
Legal practitioners should not encourage fruitless litigations all in the bid to get money. If we advise these families appropriately and have one voice most of this suits would not be in court today.
Family land owners should hold their household together. They should always think of the future and not the present. They should also respect government plans for various communities. Visit the town planning, lands bureau etc inorder to be sure what an area of land is set aside for.
In alienating their rights they should try to lease it out for a long period of time rather than selling outrightly. By doing this, children to come will benefit and their won't be issues of land grabbing. Same will be reduced to the barest minimum.
If the family is not divided, outsider would not take advantage, and most times an outsider always get the better part of the land leaving the family with portions of less value.
We should try as much as possible to be productive in a positive manner and rid the society off miscreants.
*Below is our position and or advise at the Land Grabbers; The Law And Your Rights Stakeholders meeting held at the Ikorodu Town Hall itaelewa.* this will also form our memo to the ministry on the need to amend those highlighted portion stated;
1. It is necessary to amend the provision of section 2(1) to make it an offence in order for subsection (3) to be triggered in respect thereof.
2. Section 2(2) of the law on retroactivity of its provision should be addressed.
3. The potential impact of the provisions of section 4 of the law on the rights of a bonafide purchaser for value without notice, adverse possessor and claims founded on prescription and limitation laws should also be addressed in order not to affect existing recognized legal rights.
4. The law should also provide for an omnibus penal/punishment provision to cover circumstances where offences are created without punishment, particularly to address the lacuna in sections 5, 6, 9 and 10 of the law.
5. The provisions of sections 3(4) and 7 needs to be reconciled in order to make the intention of the law clearer, and same goes with respect to section 8 on the issue of mensrea.
6. Lastly, the obligation to pay any extraneous fee, if any, should be regulated by the agreement of the parties and not by leaving it at the whims of the land owners as presently recognized by the provisions of *Section 11 of the law.*
7. This provision seems to run in conflict with the developmental objective of the law because it appears to encourage land owning families to forcibly enter a landed property to demand for such customary fees. The law does not specifically prohibit the demand and collection of possession fee in the name of ‘foundation levy’. It will be difficult, in my view, to really stop the family owning land from naming all fees previously being collected as foundation levy or possession fees and charging exorbitantly to cover all such proliferated fees previously being demanded from the person purchasing real estate.
8. Amend the punishment section of the relevant sections of the criminal law 2011 to take cognizance of the innovations in the property protection law and the new philosophy on criminal sentencing i.e. community services and suspended sentences.
9. Repeal the Property protection law
10. May we also chip in that land owners should be allowed to sell either personally or through licensed Real Estate agents.
11. If you are not licensed you should have no business meddling in the business of land. And if caught, should be punished. It will drastically reduce the menace of this so called land grabbing.
12. The Lagos State Estate Agency Regulatory Authority Law 2007 needs to be repealed.
*In attendance representing the branch:-*
1. Mr. Shakiru Omolaja.
2. Mr. Olajide Abiodun.
Thank you.
*Olajide Abiodun Esq*
*For Community Intervention Committee NBA IKD BRANCH.*
22/4/2021.
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