EMINENT DOMAIN
Eminent domain refers to the power of the government to take private land for public use under certain circumstances. For example, the government may sometimes take someone's house to make room for a new highway or a bridge. This right is commonly known in Nigeria as the Compulsory Acquisition of Land.
The most common uses of property taken by eminent domain have been for roads, government buildings and public utilities. The homeowners typically are entitled to compensation for their loss, and the government must first follow several different procedures before it can take property.
Eminent Domain is the process by which the government acquires from private landowners their land which is needed for any public purpose or for a purpose beneficial to the economic development of Nigeria. It is a drastic form of government intervention as it results in the dispossession and eviction of landowners from their properties. This is provided for under the Land Use Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended.
Land can be compulsorily acquired for overriding public interest and public purpose. Overriding public interest means the requirement of the land by the Government of the State or by a Local Government in the State.
Also, a land compulsorily acquired for public purpose can be vitiated where it was subsequently diverted to serve the private need. If a property is ostensibly acquired for public purpose and it is subsequently discovered that it has directly or indirectly been diverted to serve private needs, the acquisition can be vitiated. If the acquiring authority can no longer find a public purpose for the land so acquired the only avenue open to it is to de-acquire it and let the same revert to the person in whom it was already vested,
Ideally, this is supposed to be based on the provision of a just compensation in terms of the prevailing market value of the property in question.
However, reports show that such is not the case in the country. In most developed societies, the victims are not under obligation to accept what the government has to offer as compensation. And the government or its agencies do not singlehandedly decide on what constitutes the value of an acquired property.
Even the compensation as it stands is dependent on the availability of a Certificate of Occupancy, the acquisition of which could take decades, despite claims of easy facilitation by various state governments. So, if a customary landowner is caught by the government’s right of eminent domain while still in the process of acquiring a Certificate of Occupancy, he loses the land and everything on it completely.
No matter how unfair the compensation is, let people be paid as at when due, according to the provisions of the law, almost immediately. In most cases, the compensation does not come in the lifetime of the beneficiary.”
See ALHAJI TSOHO DAN AMALE v. SOKOTO LOCAL GOVERNMENT & ORS(2012) SC.290/2003, GOLDMARK NIGERIA LIMITED & ORS. v. IBAFON COMPANY LIMITED & ORS.(2012), SC.421/2001.
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