Assembly Wades Into Land Dispute, Orders Ministry To Issue Title Documents

                                       Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly, 

                                       Olakunle Oluomo (left) with the State Governor,

                                        Prince Dapo Abiodun

Ogun State House of Assembly has waded into a landed matter concerning a ministry and a private concern in the state which could degenerate into a squabble if not immediately attended to.

The state assembly has given a marching order to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development to immediately appropriate the department responsible for the processing of building approval to process and issue building approval to Polysmart Packaging Limited within fifteen working days from the passage of the resolution.

The order followed a motion moved by the Majority Leader, Hon. Sheriff Yusuf, seconded by the Chief Whip, Tinuke Bello, shortly after the presentation of the report of the House Committee on Justice, Ethics and Public Petitions by its Chairman, Solomon Osho.

Osho moved the motion for its adoption, seconded by Hon. Damilola Soneye and supported by other lawmakers at a plenary presided over by Speaker Olakunle Oluomo at the Assembly Complex, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

The Assembly noted from its findings and observation that Polysmart Company had satisfied all requirements as confirmed by the representative of the Ministry, in addition to a series of documentary evidence, which included, the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) signed by Governor Dapo Abiodun as presented before the lawmakers by the company’s representative.

It called on the Office of the Special Adviser/ Director-General, Bureau of Lands and Survey to appropriately reconcile the issue of unregistered C of O allegedly issued to Springtime Development foundation in 2007 upon the payment of all required payments and documentation.

The report partly reads, “having carefully considered the findings and observations during interrogations of the parties involved in the issue, the Committee is of the opinion that the prayers contained in the petition is not to determine the rightful owner of the land under contention or otherwise, but rather, to resolve the issue of "delayed investment project’ of the petitioner due to the refusal of the officials of State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, to process and issue a building approval to the petitioner.

To the committee, this is an action that has evidently resulted in huge loss of returns on investment to the petitioner and also depriving the innocent youths of Ogun State access to gainful employment”.

According to Hon. Osho, the Committee held meetings with all concerned parties including the respondents- Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Lands (Legal), Barr. Akande Emmanuel, representative of the Ministry of Urban and Physical Planning, TPL. J.A Idowu, counsel to Springtime Development Foundation, Oluwatola Akindapo and the petitioner led by the Counsel to Polysmart Packaging limited, Barr. Ifeanyi Obi, among others.

The lawmakers during the meeting observed that “the petitioner possessed and presented verified original copies of relevant documents of the land under contention to the Committee, including a signed and registered Certificate of Occupancy, as well as a government-issued survey plan; that Springtime Development foundation presented to the Committee a duplicated copy of an unregistered Certificate of Occupancy, and failed to present any other relevant documents to support its claim as requested by the Committee during the meeting.

The Bureau of Lands and Survey probably failed to register the purported C of O issued to Springtime Development Foundation and proceeded to issue and register a new C of O to the petitioner for the same land, adding that despite the genuineness of the land documents submitted by the petitioner to the Ministry and payment of the required fee made into the coffers of the State Government to process its building approval, the SSA to the Governor on Lands (Legal) wrote and directed the Ministry to unjustly stay action on the processing of the petitioner’s building approval”.

According to the Committee Chairman, the petitioner obtained loans from financial institutions to finance the establishment of the company and had invested a sum of N4bn out of the proposed N25bn for the establishment in Omu Arogun of Obafemi Owode Local Government.