Fashola: FG Has Been Unfair to Lagos

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, yesterday said the federal government had treated the state with outright prejudice by selling parcels of land it acquired for public use from the state to private interests or individuals.

The governor lamented the decision of the federal government to issue certificate of occupancy (C of O) in Abuja for parcels of land in Lagos, pointing out that it was illegal for the federal government to issue such document.

He said this at a public presentation of two books by former Federal Commissioner of Works, Alhaji Femi Okunnu and the wife of former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos, Mrs. Gbemi Shasore respectively in Victoria Island.
At the presentation of the books titled “Contemporary State Land Matters in Nigeria: A Case Study of Lagos State and In Her Own Right: Abimbola Fashola,” Fashola lamented that rather than return the land to the official owners, the federal government continued “to sell them to individuals for commercial purposes.

“I think we have received the short end of the stick as a people (residents of Lagos). Lagos is one of the few states that are bounded by lagoon and ocean on the side. Yet, that is the place I think we have been most treated unfairly by the central government. 
He said the federal government took over Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) on Lagos Island, noting that the federal government “is only a manager and not landlord. It belongs to Lagos. It was originally crown land. It was given to the central government to manage. It is alarming that the manager has started selling the land left in its care.

“I have told people, who purchased the land that they bought nothing. The seller has no document to offer or prove that they are the landlord. I have told those who bought it to go and collect their money back from the seller.
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As long as I live, I will fight the battle to collect the land from the federal government. It is a national monument named after Tafawa Balewa and that is what some people in the country own. I have told them that if you want something like this, go and build your own.”
The government, also, lamented how some federal agencies had constituted cog in the wheel of progress in  Lagos, noting that the state “has started issuing electronic certificate of ownership (E-C of O). But our activities are being hindered by agencies of the federal government by National Inland Waterways Authority.”

The governor explained that the water agency “has continued to sell land. Even the land Use Act stated that the governor is the trustee of the lands in each state. But the federal government has violated this provision.

“With respect to the lawyers that may be advising them, the federal government open his own land registry and said it is issuing C of O from Abuja over land in Lagos. The federal government can own land for public purpose.
“There is nowhere in the constitution that it was stated that land belongs to the federal government. It is a residual matter because it is a personal issue. Land is people’s matter and it must be dealt with at the local level,” Fashola said.

The governor described the action taken by the federal government as abnormal and anomalous, noting that the issues of land “concern every person in the state considering the limited land space available in Lagos. Many states in the country including our neighbor, Ogun State was bigger in size than the state.”

Fashola said the book discussed land issue in Lagos and land issue in Lagos “is a very serious matter. I have had the privilege of flying over Lagos. It was a very beautiful sight. It is the smallest land masses in the country. Ogun is four times our size.”
But Okunnu said the previous presidents of Nigeria have, since its return to democracy, failed to yield to a court decision that parcels of land acquired for public use by the federal government be returned to their original owners.