OGUN : Anti-Land-Grabbing Law Ineffective - Surveyors

 

APPSN Raises Alarm Over Incessant Land Grabbing, Continued Attacks On Members.

..... Says Ogun State’s Anti-Land-Grabbing Law, Useless, Ineffective.

Surveyors under the aegis of the Association of Private Practising Surveyors of Nigeria have described Ogun State’s anti-land grabbing law as useless and ineffective.

The surveyors claimed that the law allows the law enforcement agencies, especially the police, to extort them.

The APPSN, an arm of the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors, Ogun State branch, lamented the incessant land grabbing, continued attacks and other crimes being committed against its members, other related professionals and landowners by land grabbers and illegal land speculators. A report by Punch revealed. 

Speaking at a public lecture organised by the association on the Anti-Land-Grabbing Law of Ogun State, the Chairman of the APPSN, Adewale Oluwafemi, said the abnormalities and ugly trends the law was expected to address were getting worse.

The state House of Assembly had in 2016 passed the bill on the Prohibition of Forcible Occupation of Landed Properties, Armed Robbery, Kidnapping, Cultism and other Anti Violence and Related Offences Law 2016 of Ogun State into law and it was assented to by the then governor, Ibikunle Amosun.

Oluwafemi said, “The Association of Private Practising Surveyors of Nigeria, Ogun State branch, has been desirous of giving proper publicity to the anti-land grabbing law of Ogun State government.

“This is because since this law came to life, we have not seen any difference in the issue of buying, selling, demarcation and surveying of land in Ogun State which the law is supposed to affect one way or the other.

“Illegal land agents, popularly known as ‘Ajagungbales,’ still operate unabated. The general public seems to not know their rights on issues of land ownership and building on the land.

Attempts to get the reaction of the state government on why the law has not been implemented failed as the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Waheed Odusile, could not be reached before the filing of this report.