SALE OF PROPERTY WITHOUT AUTHORITY Purported sale of land by persons not having legal title to it is by far one of the commonest and most dreaded evils associated with land acquisition. This is because a lot of people conjure different types of ‘title’ to the land that it takes due diligence and lots of prayers on the part of the purchaser not to fall into the wrong hands. It was always common for purported family agents to unlawfully sell family property without the consent of the head...

ILLEGAL OCCUPATION OF PROPERTY Section 4 of the new Law provides that a person who is occupying a property as an encroacher and fails to leave the property on being required to do so by or on behalf of the owner of the property commits an offence and on conviction shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five million naira or five years imprisonment or both. The Law extends the meaning of property to include ‘a reference to an access to the property, whether or not any such access itself...

PROHIBITION OF DEMAND FOR FEE IN REGARD TO CONSTRUCTION Section 11 of the Law is by far the most popular provision of the Law. Anybody who has done construction work in Lagos and its environs has one tale or the other to tell about the notorious omo onile. They are basically hoodlums who lurk around construction areas, charge developers for every tipper of sand/cement/gravel brought to site; then, at various stages of building, they throw in more obstacles and demand payment of huge sums...