Emmanuel Okas Wike is the President, Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers. He spoke to ANN GODWIN in Port Harcourt on how the Land Use Act has undermined professional practice, measures that could transform the real estate sector, and the role of estate surveyors in developing the economy.
Oxfam International warned Thursday that up to 12,000 people could die each day by the end of the year as a result of hunger linked to the coronavirus pandemic—a daily death toll surpassing the daily mortality rate from Covid-19 itself.
April saw the highest global daily mortality rate for Covid-19 thus far with just over 10,000 deaths per day.
The Preah Vihear Provincial Court has dropped all charges against eight ethnic Kuoy villagers who were in a land dispute with the Hengfu Group Sugar Industry Co Ltd since 2014.
Wednesday’s decision was made by the judge who tried the case on June 10. The eight were accused of detention and illegal confinement.
Defence lawyer Sam Tithseyha told The Post on Thursday it was the right decision because they are the victims and this decision shows their innocence as they are not guilty of the charges and have good names in society.
Kampong Speu province is set to reclaim land in the Kirirom National Park after accusations from locals that environmental officers had encroached on 2ha of it.
The statement came from provincial governor Vei Samnang who vowed to get to the bottom of the matter.
The dispute began when a letter containing the thumbprints of nearly 20 residents was sent to a commune chief claiming that the signatories are witnesses in Chambak commune’s Thmei Village.
Cambodia’s government is unable to resolve the country’s myriad land disputes because many of them involve senior officials, Minister of Interior Sar Kheng said in a rare acknowledgement Tuesday, as a rights group urged authorities to take action against all perpetrators of illegal land grabs equally.
Speaking at a conference that included provincial governors and local authorities from across the country, Sar Kheng did not disclose the names of the involved officials but said that at least one of the disputes involved one of Cambodia’s deputy prime ministers.
The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) for the first time conducted a door-to-door distribution of certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs) to ensure that farmer-beneficiaries in Laguna would receive their land titles.
Through the “Serbisyong DAR-to-Door,” Secretary John Castriciones last July 1 distributed to 43 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) their CLOAs covering a total of 38.7 hectares of agricultural land.
Land reform minister Calle Schlettwein has urged regional governors to use land as a form of correcting past injustices while creating economic opportunities for disadvantaged Namibians to address inequality.
The government, through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, has advised individuals and investors interested in acquiring lands in the Voltaian Basin to contact the Lands Commission for guidance and assistance.
“Any individual, private or public establishment, be it local or foreign, intending to acquire land in the subject area for any developmental land-use activity is required to contact the Lands Commission Secretariat in the region where the land is situated or Head Office of the Lands Commission in Accra,” it said in a statement.
Executive Director of the Centre for Women in Agriculture and Nutrition (C-WAN), Emmanuel Wullingdool, has appealed to the government to create agricultural land banks to enable the vulnerable groups in society to have access to fertile land for farming purposes.
He said the vulnerable groups, including women, could register with the government at the district levels to acquire those productive lands to farm.
EMEKA ELEH is a past president, Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) and a principal partner at Ubosi Eleh and Company. In this interview with BERTRAM NWANNEKANMA, he spoke on the imperative of land titling, challenges of inaccurate data and other issues in the real estate sector.
A war is brewing in Agudama-Epie community in Yenagoa Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, over moves by the Central Naval Command (CNC), Nigerian Navy, to demolish buildings around its headquarters, known as Camp Porbeni. Until 2013, Camp Porbeni was the cynosure of all eyes when entering Yenagoa because its alluring environment had been used by the Nigerian Army to accommodate its top officers and by Julius Berger as residential quarters for its management staff.
