Fashola: FG Has Been Unfair to Lagos

Says it can’t issue certificate of occupancy

Gboyega Akinsanmi after Tafawa Balewa and that is what some people in the country own. I have told them that if you want something like this, go and build your own.”

The government, also, lamented how some federal agencies had constituted cog in the wheel of progress in Lagos, noting that the state “has started issuing electronic certificate of ownership (E-C of O). But our activities are being hindered by agencies of the federal government by National Inland Waterways Authority.”

The governor explained that the water agency “has continued to sell land. Even the land Use Act stated that the governor is the trustee of the lands in each state. But the federal government has violated this provision.

“With respect to the lawyers that may be advising them, the federal government open his own land registry and said it is issuing C of O from Abuja over land in Lagos. The federal government can own land for public purpose.

“There is nowhere in the constitution that it was stated that land belongs to the federal government. It is a residual matter because it is a personal issue. Land is people’s matter and it must be dealt with at the local level,” Fashola said.

The governor described the action taken by the federal government as abnormal and anomalous, noting that the issues of land “concern every person in the state considering the limited land space available in Lagos. Many states in the country including our neighbor, Ogun State was bigger in size than the state.”