A realtor and member of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), Festus Uwakhemen, has urged the National Assembly to urgently enact legislation that would prevent the arbitrary revocation of land allocations in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory.

Uwakhemen made the appeal in a statement made available to The Guardian in Abuja, saying the proposed law would provide property owners in the nation’s capital with greater assurance that their land titles cannot be revoked at will by successive administrations.

He observed that the call for a new law has become necessary due to frequent instances where Federal Capital Territory (FCT) ministers revoke land allocations approved by their predecessors—a situation he said has adversely affected individuals and corporate organisations.

“The National Assembly has to pass a law that when a minister has approved any land, in principle or through a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O), no other minister has the power to revoke the land except if the land passes through the National Assembly.

“With this development, we are going to have sanity. But if that is not passed, every minister has the power to revoke. They can come to your house and say your house is on the waterways. That is why people in the FCT keep having issues with revocation.

“When the minister can allocate but cannot revoke arbitrarily, he will think very carefully before granting approval to any allocation, knowing fully well that if that allocation has to be revoked, it must pass through channels that may not be easily influenced,” he concluded.