The coastal expansion toward the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Dangote Refinery complex, and the Alaro City commercial mega-hub in Epe has generated unprecedented land velocity. However, this growth corridor is also where title ambiguities frequently ensnare unwary individual buyers who confuse "excision in progress" with a certified, registered title.
Understanding Excision and Government Gazettes
When the Land Use Act was promulgated in 1978, all urban lands in Lagos State were designated as acquired by the state government under global acquisition orders. To protect indigenous communities, the state instituted an administrative process known as Excision, whereby a specific, demarcated parcel of land is excised and legally released back to the traditional ancestral family.
Once an excision application is approved by the Governor, the formal demarcation coordinates and boundaries are published in an official government publication termed a Gazette. The Gazette assigns a permanent notice number and book entry, granting the family legal authority to alienate portions of that land to third parties.
The Perils of "Excision in Progress"
Real estate marketers often advertise lands with the marketing caveat "Excision in Process" or "File Number Assigned." Legally, this conveys zero property rights. Until the excision has received gubernatorial approval and technical coordinate charting is finalized:
- The land remains officially under state acquisition.
- The state government reserves the absolute statutory right to decline the excision application.
- Any physical structures erected on unexcised land are classified as illegal encroachers subject to immediate demolition without compensation.
"An excision file number is an administrative tracking reference, not a legal title. Institutional capital must insist on published Gazette volume numbers or perfected Governors Consents before allocating a single kobo."
The Cadastral Survey Demarcation Check
At Botabed, every estate scheme offered in our portfolio—from The Grand Horizon Lekki to the Epe Waterfront Smart Eco-City—undergoes physical pillar demarcation using high-accuracy dual-frequency RTK GNSS GPS rovers. These verified coordinates are charted against the official master layout maps at the Surveyor General’s Office, guaranteeing zero overlap with proposed expressway expansions, public transit easements, or green belt preservation buffers.
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