LAND TITLES YOU NEED TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND IN NIGERIA (CONT’D)
WHO CAN APPLY FOR AN EXCISION?
Basically, any entity [person, group of persons, organization, and community] can request for excision. But you should note that not all excision requests are honored. For instance, a single person requesting a very large expanse of land, it is unlikely the land would be given to you but when the requesting entity is a community, they stand a better chance of being given the land.
PROCESS OF EXCISION
The first step is to submit an official excision request to the Technical Committee on Excision of the state. It is expected that the excision request is being drafted by a lawyer who has a sound understanding of the process.
After the request is received, the Technical Committee on Excision looks into it and tries to determine if the request should be granted or not.
The request then gets submitted to the governor of the state, with the Technical Committee on Excision also giving their recommendation, on whether the request should be granted or not.
Listed below are the entities that makes up the Technical Committee on Land Excision
Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development;
Ministry of Waterfront Infrastructure Development;
Office of the State Surveyor – General;
New Towns Development Authority;
Ministry of the Environment;
Ministry of Agriculture;
Ministry of Justice;
Lands Bureau.
HOW LONG DOES EXCISION GENERALLY TAKE?
One cannot correctly predict when excision will be granted as It is very difficult to state how long it will take.
But with good funding and connections, an excision should take between 4 and 8 years.
Also note that it is possible to see an excision grant take a lesser period, but it is very uncommon.
EXCISION VS C OF O
Excision, as previously explained in the first article Land Titles You Need to know and understand in Nigeria, A portion of land is said to be excised if such portion has been legally released, through a government gazette, to indigenous settlers while C of O is a legal document that gives ownership of a free piece of land to an entity.
Furthermore, excision lasts forever while C of O lasts for only 99 years. After which the person issued the C of O can reapply for another one and this is subjected to approval by the government.
Lastly, an excised land (a gazette land) cannot be issued a C of O. because an excised land is just as good as that having a C of O. Therefore, it’s safe to buy both an excised land and a C of O land.
BUYING AN EXCISED LAND
It is possible to buy an excised land but the state Governor needs to consent to the transaction in other for you to be legally considered the new owner of the land.
You risk losing the land, if you do not seek the Governor’s consent over the purchase of land even if you have proof of payment.
EXCISION IN PROCESS
As the name implies, this simply means the excision process of land is still ongoing.
However, this doesn’t guarantee excision as excision may fail or succeed, so “Excision in Process” isn’t a guarantee for anything which makes it highly risky.
IS IT SAFE TO BUY A LAND WITH “EXCISION IN PROCESS”?
No, it’s not safe to buy such land except you are a risk taker and an opportunist. But, this does not necessarily mean you should avoid lands with “Excision in Process”.
Lands with excision in progress are often sold at relatively low prices compared to a land that has ben granted excision.
In other words, if you buy land before its excision succeeds, by the time it has final approval, the price of that land would have grown incredibly high.
As previously said, buying excised land is risky but if it excision is granted, the benefit is often massive.
So the choice of taking the risk or not lies with the purchaser.
Kindly note that this article is written to our best knowledge and we would appreciate your opinion and comments.
Thanks for your time.