BREAKING: Lagos Assembly to hold public hearing on land grabbing

BREAKING: Lagos Assembly to hold public hearing on land grabbing

The menace of land grabbing was a major topic for debate on the floor of the Lagos state House of Assembly on Tuesday, March 19, as lawmakers agreed that a public hearing be organised as part of urgent solutions.

The planned stakeholders’ meeting would be all-encompassing involving the state government, the police, the judiciary, traditional rulers and others.

Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, said land grabbing has become “a serious issue that is beyond disturbing. It is chaotic. Many people have been killed, some maimed and some locked up without trial just because of the existence of some people who have turned themselves to land grabbers.”

In a statement issued by his chief press secretary, Eromosele Ebhomele, Obasa frowned at cases where land speculators write petitions and with the connivance of security officials, the real owners of the properties are arrested, taken to Abuja and forced to sign undertakings that would bar them from the same land they bought from their toiling.

The speaker, who said these land grabbers often attack new and developing areas in Ikorodu, Epe, Ojo and others, added: “I wonder how somebody would just invade people’s properties and still exude such boldness and confidence, kill the owner or bring police.”

Obasa, recalling his own experience sometime ago, further added: “what do you think of the fate of a resident who struggles to own a property, struggle to start building on it only for somebody to just suddenly take over the land making life difficult for him?”