Land Use Act

I have stated elsewhere in this judgment that the disputed land was deemed granted to the Appellants since the rights of those who abandoned the property are deemed transferred to him. Subsequent sale to Dr. Dima was invalid ab initio, in absence of proper termination of the agreement between the Rivers State Government and the Appellant. In Olohunde & Anor V Adeyoju (2000) 79 LRCN 2297 at 2328 paras D – E, this Court had this to say:-
"A certificate of statutory or customary right of occupancy issued under the Land Use Act, 1978; cannot be said to be conclusive evidence of any right, interest or valid title to land in favour of the grantee. It is at best, only a prima facie evidence of such right, interest or title without more and may in appropriate cases be effectively challenged and rendered invalid, null and void."
See Kyari v Alkali & 3 Ors (2001) 5 SCNJ 421.

In other words, the essence of the Act is to preserve and protect the rights of Nigerians to enjoy and use land, and further, enjoy the fruit from the land. I will repeat again that it is not therefore the intention of the legislature that Section 22 of the Land Use Act, should limit and deny parties of their rights to use and enjoy land and the fruits thereto in non-contentious transaction or alienation. The case at hand is a private transaction between individuals. Again the view held by this Court per Karibi- Whyte, JSC in Abioye v. Yakubu (supra) is in point and comes to force.

As rightly submitted on behalf of Respondent, the Act was enacted to address the problems of uncontrolled speculations in Urban lands, make land easily accessible to every Nigerian irrespective of gender, unify tenure system in the country to ensure equity and justice in land allocation and distribution, and amongst others, to certain extent prevent fragmentation of Rural lands arising from the application of the traditional principle of inheritance. The consent clause in the Act therefore gives the Governor the required supervisory control of lands in the territory.