Epe Communities Fear Being Shortchanged in Lagos Land Acquisition  

By Bennett Oghifo
 
The Eyin-Osa United Kingdom Development Association (EUKDA), which comprise about 120 families, have expressed fear of being dispossessed of their land with the proposed enumeration plan of the Lagos state government.
Chief Muftau A. Shittu, who heads EUKDA’s executive, said they are vehemently opposed to the procedure Lagos officials put forward to conduct the enumeration exercise, describing it as “an attempt to defraud the land owners of their God-given inheritance.”
On the procedure, Shittu stated that the government would identify land owners, count development on such land, like burial ground, huts, shrines, including crops to determine compensation to the owners.
“However, our association, for the past fourteen years that different administrations have been toying with this mode of enumeration for compensation, has been rejecting it, not because it is not only inadequate, but it is also a callous means to take away our inheritance, by which the over 120 families would become homeless.” 
Chief Shittu said officials of the Lagos State Ministry for Commerce and Industry were preparing to carry out the exercise, stating that they were told by the officials that the planned enumeration had come to stay and that it would be carried out forcefully if compelled.
However, the group presented their request in a letter dated September 7, 2017, addressed to the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, signed by Messrs Mufutau Shittu, who is the Chairman and Kabiru A. Shabi, the Secretary.
They asked for 45 per cent as the minimum of the entire lands to be excised in the name of the association; that Certificate of Occupancy (CofO) be provided in the name of the association within the affected land area, which is Eyin-Osa area, the ancestral homeland of their members.
They also requested that the compensation that would be agreed upon by both parties should be made in cash with the current value and rate at the period of payment; and that before any enumeration on the lands begins, the terms of enumeration and compensation must be agreed upon and signed by both parties.
The group also intimated the Commissioner of what it called “Land Overlapping Scenario”, by a statement credited to the Office of Surveyor-General of Lags State, which said that the total land areas of Eyin-Osa was 3,342 hectres and that the total claimed survey plans submitted by the group was 11,361.70 hectres and that the land owners should find a way of resolving the difference.
“This claim by the Office of Surveyor-General posed a serious challenge to us as members of EUKDA, thus, we resolved to revisit every member’s land after which we come out with the true and correct position of members’ land, thereby we will resolve the issue of the so-called overlapping”, they said, urging the Commissioner to look into the matter with every sense of objectivity.
They also appealed to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to take a critical look at the numbers of families involved in Eyin-Osa, and how Epe Division has been short-changed when it comes to land excision, vis-a-vis other divisions, such as Ikorodu, Eti-Osa, Badagry, among others.
 

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