Epe communities seek Ambode’s intervention over proposed land enumeration

Communities in Epe Local government area of Lagos State, which comprised of about 120 families, under the aegis of Eyin-Osa United Kingdom Development Association (EUKDA), has expressed fear over the proposed enumeration plan by the government on their landed property.

Speaking on the procedure that officials put forward to conduct the enumeration exercise, the association’s executive headed by Chief Muftau A. Shittu, who called the attention of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, to the lingering issue, expressed the group’s opposition to procedure mooted by the officials, describing it as an attempt to deprive the land owners “their God-given inheritance”.

Addressing the media in Lagos last week, the association’s representatives noted that government usually carries out enumeration, first, by identifying land owners, counts development on such land such as burial ground, huts, shrines, including crops, among others, to determine the payment for land owners.

“However, our association, for the past 14 years that different administrations have been toying with this mode of enumeration for compensation, has been rejecting it, not because it’s not only inadequate, but also, we see it as a callous means to take away our inheritance, by which the over 120 families would become homeless!”, said the group.

Moreso, EUKDA noted that based on the experience, by which government, under the guise of “overriding public interest, so-called,” has succeeded in dispossessing owners of their ancestral land.

The Eyin-Osa communities were said to receive with shock the news that the planned enumeration had come to stay and that it would be forcefully carried out.

“Officials from the Lagos State Ministry of Commerce and Industry told us their readiness to carry out the exercise at all cost. We are using this opportunity to draw the attention of Governor Ambode to our plights”. said Chief Shittu

In a letter dated September 7, 2017, addressed to the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, signed by Messrs Mufutau Shittu, who is the Chairman and Kabiru A. Shabi, the Secretary, they listed their requests to include; 45 percent as the minimum of the entire lands to be excised in the name of the association; that Certificate of Occupancy (CofO) be provided in the name of the association within the affected land area, which is Eyin-Osa area, the ancestral homeland of their members: that the compensation that would be agreed by both parties, should be made in cash with the current value and rate at the period of payment and that before any enumeration on the lands begins, the term of enumeration and compensation must be agreed upon and signed by both parties.

The group also intimated the Commissioner over what it called “Land Overlapping Scenario”, by the statement credited to the Office of Surveyor-General of Lagos State, who stated that the total land areas of Eyin-Osa was 3,342 hectares and that the total claimed survey plans submitted by the group was 11,361.70 hectares and that the land owners should find a way of resolving the difference.

“This claim by the Office of Surveyor-General posed a serious challenge to us as members of EUKDA, thus, we resolved to revisit every member’s land after which we came out with the true and correct position of member’s land, thereby we will resolve the issue of the so-called overlapping”, they said, urging the Commissioner to look into the matter with every sense of objectivity.

They also appealed to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to take a critical look at the number of families involved in Eyin-Osa, and how Epe Division has been short-changed when it comes to land excision, vis-a-vis other divisions, such as Ikorodu, Eti-Osa, Badagry, among others.

Tracing the genesis of the issue, Chief Shittu noted that between 1970-1973, Eyin-Osa lands were acquired for agricultural purposes by the state government.