15/08/2016
Deed of Assignment, Excision, Gazette, and global
c of o are all land documents you need to know
before buying a land.
A Gazette is the most bastardized word Land
Sellers have peddled around to Purchasers and its
the most confusing document that non-land
experts have heard and know absolutely nothing
about. They neither know what it looks like nor its
perceived advantages or disadvantages and why it
is one of the most important document you must
be connected to unless your home could be
demolished in future for it not being associated
with it. Now before we talk about what a Gazette
is, we have to Know what an Excision is and how
they are both connected.
BRIEF HISTORY OF A GAZETTE: Before the Land-
Use Act in 1978 was enacted, Traditional families
who had so much land power under their control
benefited from taking pleasure over all the rights
given to them as land owners. Because of this
mega-power they wielded with land, they gave
out lands to individuals under a tenancy system
for them to use the land either for fishing or
farming while they still maintained control over
the portion of the land given to the individual.
It wasn’t until the creation of Lagos Executive
Development Board in the 1950s that individuals
where now able to acquire land from the board
directly in exchange for a sum of money instead of
going to meet the traditional families to obtain
land. This led to the Traditional Families now
splitting their lands to keep some for the family
use and others for sale to individuals directly to
compete with the Lagos Executive Development.
This system still made the Traditional Families
total top dogs in exercising exclusive rights with
lands they chose to sell and the ones they chose to
keep. This eventually led to the birth of land
speculation in Nigeria because lands were very
expensive to purchase and difficult to obtain.
Because of this and other ancillary reasons, it
finally led to the promulgation of the Land Use
Decree on the 28th of March, 1978 that vested all
lands in every state of the Federation under the
control of the State Governors. People could now
directly obtain land from the Governor and the
Governor could allocate land to the individual or
Companies inquiring about land and issue
certificate of occupancy to these people it has
allocated land to.
The land use act coupled with other laws made it
possible for the Governor who was now the owner
of all lands in the state to actually have the power
to Acquire more lands Compulsorily for its own
public purpose to provide Amenities for the
greater good of the citizens. The Acquisition of
land from the Family by the Governor who is now
the custodian of all lands in the state was now
empowered by the Land Use Act to take the
general control and management of all URBAN
land and any area designated as an Urban area by
the Governor shall be published in an Official
Government Record book known as the Gazette.
Any area, community or village the Governor
designates as an Urban Area is an Acquired land
and the rest of the land it has not Acquired may be
given back to the community it was acquired from
in the form of an Excision.
“An Excision means basically taking a part from a
whole and that part that has been excised, will be
recorded and documented in the official
government gazette of that state.”
So for example if in 1981, Victoria Island, Ikoyi
and Lekki were all part of one big Community
joined together called Oniru and it had no
separation to know which area is called ikoyi, lekki
or V.I then and it has an approximate total area
square meters estimate of 100,000 square meters
and the Government is interested in that area and
decides to take 70,000 square meters for its self
for its own personal use as an Urban Area or public
purpose, it will record this acquisition in the
official government gazette and also record that
the remaining 30,000 square meters has been left
alone for the traditional family to have and do
with it whatever it pleases it to do.
This my friends is the sweet relationship between
a land under acquisition, an excision and gazette.
So now that we know that a Gazette is an Official
record book where all special government details
are spelt out, detailed and recorded, we would
now focus on Special Gazettes that deal with Land
purposes only and its features.
A gazette will show the communities or villages
that have been granted excision and the number
of acres or hectares of land that the government
has given to them. It is within those excised acres
or hectares that the traditional family is entitled
to sell its lands to the public and not anything
outside those hectares of land given or excised to
them. If they decide to sell anything outside the
excised land, then that land is under acquisition
by the government and it is a very bad land to buy
Special Features of a Gazette include the
following:
The Cover of the Gazette must include the Number
of the Gazette, Page of the Gazette and Volume of
the Gazette. It must also Include the Date and
Location it was issued
The Cover of the Gazette must include the Number
of the Gazette, Page of the Gazette and Volume of
the Gazette. It must also Include the Date and
Location it was issued
1. The first page of a Gazette must have the
following unless it is a dubious or fake Gazette
a. The Logo of the Country and the inscription of
the title “ LAGOS STATE OF NIGERIA OFFICIAL
GAZETTE”
b. Underneath it must have the Number, Volume,
Page, Date and the Location it was signed into law
e.g No 26 in pages 200 to 291, Volume 87 dated
14th of August 2011 and have the contents of the
list of the Villages, Settlements and parcels of
land excised back to the community.
2. The Inner pages will show the following:
Picture 221_opt
a. The description of the Area or Village excised
b. The number of Acres or Hectares of land excised
to the Village
c. Where the boundaries of the beacons start and
stop
d. The page the description of the Village excised
is.
A Gazette is a very powerful instrument the
community owns and can replace a Certificate of
Occupancy to grant title to the Villagers. A
community owning a gazette can only sell lands to
an individual within those lands that have been
excised to them and the community or family head
of that land has the right to sign your documents
for you if you purchase lands within those excised
acres or hectares of land.
If the government based on some reasons best
known to them decides to revoke or acquire your
land, you will be entitled to compensation as long
as it’s within the Excised lands given to that
community.
The best way to know whether a land is under
acquisition or has an excision that has been
covered by a Gazette is to get a surveyor to chart
the site and take it to the surveyor general’s
office to do a land information to confirm whether
it falls within the gazette and spell out which
particular location it can be found.
Don’t be smart and assume that the land is within
a gazette and purchase it without seeking
professional help Through Omonile lawyer or a
Surveyor. You will find yourself to blame and I
wont feel sorry for you.
Also don’t listen to a Village or community elder
or person who tries to convince you that the land
they are selling is covered by a gazette. In most
situations than none, they are always lying
because they don’t know and they haven’t sought
professional help to know if that land is under
acquisition or not.
