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”
Regularization 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.
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.
Buying a land very close to a High Tension Wire or NNPC Pipeline is a sure fire way to get your house demolished and not Regularized
Buying a land very close to a High Tension Wire or NNPC Pipeline is a sure fire way to get your house demolished and not Regularized
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 don't 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.
Source:Barrister Matthew Ottah
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