Developers' Resilience in Land Acquisition Issues: The Case of Igando-Oloja Community, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos State

Abstract

Today, many real estate developers in Nigeria are confronted with confusing procedures for guaranteeing that acquisition of excised lands is free from encumbrances and pending disputes among landowning families' (locally referred to as 'omo onile'). Without diligent and exhaustive investigation, purchasing excised land for real estate development may be fraught with complications and uncertainties encompassing the excision process, compensation and issues of original ownership of such land. This study focuses on Igando-Oloja community of Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos State. The core question guiding the study is: How were real estate developers in the community able to address the uncertainty associated with land transactions for development? A case-study scenario was utilised, which involved interviews with Igando-Oloja community leaders and developers who have purchased land in the subject area. Three categories of developers' complicated land acquisition issues were unravelled. One is a category of developers that bought the same land that had been sold to a third party by a group of disgruntled landowning families, causing litigation and delaying development. In the second category, two developers bought excised land from members of a landowning family but not all stakeholders were represented in the payment/compensation process, thus land purchase discussions had to start anew. Finally, some developers were victims of governmental excision of already purchased lands. However, prompt out-ofcourt settlement resulted from the alternative dispute resolution mechanism deployed by the landowning families and the developers. This article thus offers insight into developers' adoption of an out-of-court resolution resilience strategy that expedites the process while protecting those involved and maximising the time value of money for developers and other parties in land transaction disputes.