Barrister Rahman Abiodun Abdulraheem, the Commissioner for Land, Housing and Urban Development in Oyo State in this interview by YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE sheds light on issues surrounding the Ajia land acquisition by government.
Can you shed light on the issue of the 44 acres of land that was acquired by government and is not being used in Ajia and why the government is not making use of that before engaging in new acquisition?
The expanse of land that we are talking about now is more than 44 acres; that is what I am aware of. And the essence is not just to acquire their land for no reason; it is meant to bring dividends of democracy to the community. We have a lot of developmental projects which will impact on the people of Ajia as well as the people of Oyo State in general. And that is why we felt that we will take the project there; we are taking an ICT based higher education there, we have a plan to build a hospital there and also, we want to expand the schools there as well. Lastly, we want the security personnel to really come on board particularly the Air Force base. You can see that the place is very close to the airport and we have made it known that we are collaborating with the airport authority to ensure that the airport here expands and big airplanes land here in Ibadan and big airlines come here to operate so we can use that to benefit the economy of the state. That is the issue and I want to add that the 44 acres they are talking about are already part of this new acquisition.
What will you say about allegations that government didn’t inform them before acquiring their land?
I want to use this opportunity to really disabuse the minds of people on the process of acquisition. The land in a state is in the hand of the governor of that state who is holding it in trust for the people of that state. And then, the right you have over your land is just the right to occupy the land, so if there is need for overriding public interest, the government can say they want to make use of your land including the property you put there. What we need to do is to ensure that we give adequate compensation on the land because we are in the state secretariat now, the land initially belongs to a family or more and then you can now see it is for the overriding public interest; that is why we can operate from here. I know that there will be inconveniences along the line but if you want something good, definitely, you have to bear a little inconvenience and I must tell you that this government operates with a human face. We believe that we are representing the people and that is why we always consult and discuss with our people over any issue. Like in this case, Ajia people have been coming to me and we have been holding meetings together, it is an ongoing business because we will continue to hold meetings with them until we get all issues resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.
What about allegations of government meeting with wrong people?
They have been complaining that these persons are not our representatives, these are our representatives. For us, we will deal with representatives and the people that have property on the land we want to make use of and we have our way of reaching out to them. Everybody knows the interest of government in that area; our surveyors have gone there so we all know the demarcations. Anybody who knows his land or property falls within the acquired space should come forward here, register their position on it; they don’t have to look for somebody to help them out on this because this government will not deal with third parties on this issue. We want the people entitled for compensation to receive it. And when that is being done, we have to follow due process in that regard, that has been the attitude of this government.
The people in the community claim there are unoccupied lands government can acquire rather than take over their properties. What do you have to say about this?
To the best of my knowledge, I do not know land that is not occupied in the community. And even the land they are claiming is unoccupied belongs to some people. If tomorrow, we have cause to need that particular portion of land, we go there and pay adequate compensation as well. I know there will be some little inconvenience but in determining location of projects, you have to look at areas that would be relevant for that purpose. That is why we are on that particular land.
What is your advice to the traditional family that owns Ajia and people that bought land from them?
I don’t want to categorise, I am Commissioner for Lands, not Commissioner for Chieftaincy Matters. All I have to say is that whoever is connected with any portion of land in which we have shown interest to acquire should please be patient and cooperate with the government, this is their government and we are ready to sit down with them and work out modalities and definitely, we will compensate them if their land is affected by the acquisition process.
Looking at that community, most of them may not have Certificate of Occupancy, how will they access compensation. Will government not say it’s dealing with only those that have documents?
Once they can claim that ‘this is my land’ and there is no objection from any person, we have to recognise that the land belongs to that person; once we effect our own due process mechanism and it is proven that such people own the land, we will have to pay. And even if there is any dispute, we will advise them to go to court, determine their position and come for the money. Whoever the court says is the owner of the land, we will give it to him.
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