CFL Group GMD raises alarm over alleged ‘Land Title Laundry’ in Lagos

… gives Land Registrar 7-day ultimatum or face N5bn suit

The Group Managing Director of CFL Group, Mr Lai Omotola, has raised the alarm over what he described as “Land Title Laundry” (LTL) in Lagos State, calling on the Lands Registrar to deregister the Governor’s Consent allegedly obtained by beneficiaries of fraudulent land transaction.

Omotola made the allegation at a press conference in Lagos, where he detailed his company’s ordeal involving suspected land spectator and threatened to sue the Registrar of Lands for N5 billion in damages if the alleged beneficiary’s Consent is not deregistered within seven days.

Explaining how the alleged scam operates, Omotola said the perpetrators often target abandoned properties in Ikoyi and Victoria Island because of the high value of land in the two highbrow areas.

“They usually look for an abandoned land in Ikoyi or Victoria Island because of the high premium attached to property in the two highbrow areas. They will look for a prominent name that had passed on to put as owner of such land.

“They then go to Oluwole Market to forge land certificates, backdated to the 1970s, where documents are no longer available. They prepare this land certificate outside the government system. Once the document is ready, they have staff in Alausa working in the Lands Registry who will insert the documents into the system. Immediately this is achieved, the title document will automatically become the original. To cure this defect, they will declare the original a lost document and swear to a police affidavit that the original is lost. They then proceed to register a Governor’s Consent and make a lot of people believe that the land was allocated by the Lagos State Government,” he said.

Omotola stressed the difference between a Certificate of Occupancy (CofO) and a Governor’s Consent, saying the latter does not amount to government ownership or allocation of land.

“May I say here, for the avoidance of doubt, that a CofO is different from a Governor’s Consent. A Lagos State CofO is government allocating you a land and granting you a CofO. A Governor’s Consent is the Governor consenting to a transaction between two individuals or entities, which clearly means the government is not the owner of the land. The State Government, after granting the consent, will state clearly that this consent does not cure any defect in title. If in future it is detected that there is a forgery or misrepresentation in any of the documents you supplied, the consent will be cancelled. We know this much because we are about to get out of an ugly experience from similar scammers,” he said.

The CFL Group boss said “Over the years, we have seen and heard of land title cloning and forgery in Lagos State to obtain millions and billions of naira in return. A lot of banks fell victim to cloned Lagos CofOs, only to discover the forgery when the loan entered default. A previous administration in Lagos ordered the demolition of a market opposite the Lagos State Government House, which was allegedly used for the production of forged Certificates of Occupancy. However, because of the huge money and highly placed persons, both inside and outside government, involved, they have perfected a new dimension. The new scam is what they have renamed Land Title Laundry (LTL)”.

However, efforts to obtain the state government’s reaction proved abortive, as messages sent to the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotosho, were not replied to as at the time of filing this report.