Investors grumble as Fashola delays C-of-O issuance
By Akinpelu Dada and Ronke Badmus
Wednesday, 12 Oct 2011


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Governor Babatunde Fashola

This is not the best of times for subscribers to housing schemes created by the Lagos State Government. The subcribers are grumbling over the delay in signing thousands of ready Certificates of Occupancy by the governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola.

Checks by our correspondents at the state Land Bureau revealed that thousands of applications for the vital land title document, which were processed and sent to the governor for his signature since 2009, had not been returned.

This development, it was gathered, had made the bureau to refrain from forwarding processed files for 2010 and 2011 to the office of the governor.

Anxious applicants are counting their losses as a result of the development because those who want to use their C-of-Os for financial transactions like obtaining loans from financial institutions, and those who want to build houses are unable to do so.

Before building plan approvals can be granted by the government for construction of houses, an applicant must present a valid C-of-O among other criteria.

By the provisions of the Land Use Act of 1978, any individual person or body who wants a piece of land for development purposes, especially in the urban centres, must go through the official channel to obtain plot(s) with the Certificate of Occupancy issued as proof of ownership/leasehold of such land.

By issuing the C-of-O, the government officially transfers the ownership of the land to the applicant for a specified period of time, usually 99 years.

The governor is the sole signatory to C-of-Os on plots of land within government schemes and his inability to process files sent to him on time is frustrating many land-based transactions in the state.

Government schemes are popular with investors in landed property because it is far more secure to lease them than to buy from private owners, who may sell committed government-acquired land to unsuspecting members of the public, or sell the same plot to different buyers.

It was gathered that only few of the processed files sent to the governor since 2009 were returned, with thousands of files processed gathering dust at the Lands Bureau.

An officer at the bureau, who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak formally on the matter, told one of our correspondents that the delay in signing the ready C-of-Os had put a lot of pressure on the bureau.

The officer said, “Yes, it is true that we have not been releasing as many C-of-Os as we used to do because his excellency (governor) has not been signing the processed ones sent to him for some reasons. We are just getting back some of the files sent to his office since 2009.

“The situation has made a lot of applicants, who thought we are the ones delaying the issuance of their C-of-Os, to daily throng our office or write petitions demanding to know why their title documents are not released after completing payment for their plots of land.”

A senior official of the Bureau explained that Fashola, being a lawyer, usually scrutinised every file sent to him thoroughly. He said that files with queries by the governor were often returned to their point of origin for clarification and for representation at a later date.

“For instance, somebody may buy a land worth N10m from the state government and submit evidence of tax payment that shows that he pays the same tax that petty traders pay. In such a situation, the governor will not sign the C-of-Os until the commensurate tax is paid,” the source added.

A lawyer, who was at the bureau to check on the progress of his client’s application, told one of our correspondents that officials had been giving him various excuses in the past 18 months as to why the C-of-O had not come out.

However, the Permanent Secretary, Lands Bureau, Mr. Hakeem Muri-Okunola, said it was not true that the governor had not been signing processed C-of-Os sent to him. But he acknowledged that a large volume of applications had not been signed.

He said, “That position is untrue. His Excellency has been signing files but we have a large volume. Also, he recently delegated the signing of C-of-Os to six commissioners, so the outstanding ones will be out before long.”

When reminded that the governor actually delegated the commissioners to sign private C-of-Os processed by the Directorate of Land Regularisation, Muri-Okunola said, “Like I said before, that position is not correct. He has been signing. There may be outstanding ones for one query or the other, but it is not correct to say he has not signed any for 2010.”


The President, Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Mr. Bode Adediji, said, “I will be surprised if the allegation that there are many C-of-Os that have not been signed in Lagos State to be a very serious matter and I know the governor will take an immediate step to correct it.

“Let us look at it from the simple angle of youth unemployment. The problem we have in Nigeria is that people don’t relate certain actions and inactions to much more serious things. If you don’t have C-of-O, developers cannot develop, bricklayers and other artisans cannot be employed and if people have businesses that require funding from the banks and C-of-O is not available to serve as collateral security, then that business will be kept in abeyance.”

“So, it is important that governors all over the country are sensitised to their obligation of signing and making available C-of-Os for different classes of citizens.”




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