GAZETTE: UNDERSTANDING LAND DOCUMENTS (PART 2)

We started sensitizing the public on this platform last week on land documents, specifically, the Gazette. This is a continuation of the episode.

A Gazette is an official record book where all special government details are spelt out and recorded. 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 first page of a Gazette must have the following unless it is a dubious or fake Gazette

• The Logo of the country and the inscription of the title of the state issuing it. For example, “LAGOS STATE OF NIGERIA OFFICIAL GAZETTE”.
• 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.

The Inner pages will show the following:

• The description of the Area or Village excised.
• The number of Acres or Hectares of land excised to the Village.
• Where the boundaries of the beacons start and stop.
• The page of the description of the Village excised.

A Gazette is a very powerful instrument the community owns and can replace a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) to grant title to the Villagers. A community owning a gazette can only sell lands to buyers 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.

Don’t ever think you are smart and assume that the land is within a Gazette and go ahead to purchase it without seeking professional help. You may find yourself to blame. 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 confirm to know whether it falls within the gazette and spell out which particular location it can be found.

Also, don’t listen to a Village or community elder or any 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. Some of them are liars that know the land they are selling isn’t an Excised land but they still pretend it is, so as to sell you a defective land to abscond when the people from the Land Bureau approach you to demolish your house.

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