Surveyors accuse governors of greed, illegal land acquisitions

NIGERIA: SURVEYORS are not happy with the way lands are being ‘illegally’ acquired in the country by the state governors who often used the Land Use Act as excuse to perpetrate the act.

The surveyors, under their umbrella body, the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors (NIS), accused the governors of greed in their desperation for acquisition of lands.

The institution said that governors had engaged in illegal acquisition and approval of lands indiscriminately,

particularly to their cronies and friends under the pretence of acquiring the land for developmental purposes.

The National President of NIS, Surveyor Akinloye Oyegbola, who made the allegation while speaking with journalists in AbeokutA, explained that that the governors have been engaging in obnoxious implementation of the Land Use Act 2004 to perpetrate the act.

Oyegbola stressed that the alleged greed of the governors had not only been taking toll on the professionals, but had also hindered professionalism.

He said: “The Land Use Act has good concept going by what it entails but the Chief Executive Officers of some of our states are now using it wrongly.  ‎They acquire lands in different locations for the purpose of development, but they end up using it for something else.”

“Some of these plots of land are already subjects of litigation and this will definitely cause problems for generations yet unborn,” the NIS boss said, adding: “The institution is concerned about the activities of these land grabbers because they are disturbing our operations.”

Oyegbola, who held talks with officials of the Ogun State Chapter of the NIS as part of his visit to the state, said that the activities of the land grabbers, often called Omo-Onile, had become nightmare for the surveyors.

“There are instances where our men have to go to site with policemen for them to be safe,” Oyegbola said, while adding that “the step taken by the Lagos State government will definitely help curb their activities but other state governments need to come up with laws on it.”

He, however, urged the governors to emulate Lagos by enacting laws that would check the excesses of suspected land grabbers.

Oyegbola stressed the need for the NIS to engage in more publicity in order to help enlighten the public more on its activities.