RECENTLY, it took the narrating skills of Mr Adekola Kareem, a lawyer, to trace the historical ownership of land from time immemorial to the present generation.
The event, organised by the Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC) of the Ibadan Catholic Archdiocese, was an opportunity for the people of Ijawaya community in Oyo, to know how land became owned by an individual or family, particularly in Yoruba land.
Mr Kareem, in his presentation, said at inception, no one owned any land until someone moved to a new location to establish a community or town.
He said: “This is particularly common in Yoruba land when towns and villages were just being established by warriors.
“Someone will get to a place and take ownership of the land; this type of land ownership has no documents and it just belongs to the first settler in the area.
“Therefore, the first person to own a particular land is the first settler in that community or village. It is more common in Yoruba land when a warrior or group of persons will just go to establish a new location where no one had been before and take ownership of the land, then from there, the land passes to the family and then to individual owners.
“Therefore, from the period land passed to family, it has been rotating between the family and individual ownership. Once a family has a land, it is shared among the children of the owner, which brings a portion of the land to individual ownership.
“However, when that individual dies, the land returns to family ownership as it belongs to all his children.
“Today, there are different ways to inherit land, which include through will, customary law and religious law and the best way to ensure that your land is genuine is to reach out to a lawyer for help.”
While also speaking, Mrs Adenike Ibitara of JDPC, said the lecture was an opportunity to enlighten the people of Ijawaya community on the historical perspective of land ownership and how one can own land in today’s world.
This, she said, would go a long way making people not to fall to the antics of landgrabbers.
Another official of JDPC, Mr Fola Awoyemi, then used the opportunity to distribute posters that educate people on gender-based violence, equality, human rights and alternative dispute resolution measures.
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