Prof. Peter Adeniyi


By Dele Ogbodo 

Chairman, Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reform (PTCLR), Prof. Peter Adeniyi, Friday said State Governors abuse provisions of the 1978 Land Use Act, because of the absence of federal legislation at the centre to checkmate their excess. He said the governors today really do not have the powers they were weilding, adding that the problem with the Land Use Act was proper implementation of the act.

Adeniyi who spoke through the Secretary of the Committee, Mr. Valentine Ofogba, made the disclosure in Abuja during the Public Hearing on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, organized by the Senate Committee on Constitutional Review (SCRC), which is headed by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.

He admitted that the PTCLR is not presenting memorandum to repeal the Land Use Act. He said: “Whereas the Committee in its earlier memorandum highlighted the constitutional and political crisis that will arise from the act of a simple removal of the Land Use Act from Section 315 (5)  of the 1999 Constitution, it is important to reiterate that the 1999 Constitution  being a federal Constitution, formulated to reiterate on a history  of previous constitutions before and after independence is in many ways  distinct from  those of many African constitutions.”

According to him, the act which was passed in 1978 requires additional regulations  by the National Council of States as required by section 46,  which if done, would have made it achieve its purpose.