BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI & MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO

LAGOS—Lagos State Government yesterday said it generated about N8.4 billion from various land transactions in 2013, even as out of the estimated 21 million residents in the state, only 1.6 million so far registered in the ongoing residents’ registration exercise, which kicked off on September, 2013.

Permanent Secretary, Lands Bureau, Mr. Muri-Okunola, who disclosed this yesterday lamented that the figure was 19 per cent lower than the N10.28 billion recorded in 2012.

According to him: “The resultant shortfall arose as a result of a reduction of about 40 per cent in the revenue expected to be generated from transactions on state land and capital contributions.”

He said the government expected to generate more revenue this year through property recertification and transactions from government’s land and noted that N1,633,214, 776 was paid as compensations to residents whose property were acquired for infrastructural development in 2013.

According to him, the compensations were paid for the execution of six major projects including the Itire/Okota Link Bridge and the Agbowa Housing Scheme in Epe, explaining that the money was paid to facilitate easy resettlement of owners of such acquired property.

He stated: “Usually when land is acquired and interest revoked for overriding public interest, it is the duty of government to compensate persons so affected to enable them resettle easily. This was exactly what we did in 2013 with the payments of N1, 633,214,776 as compensations.”

Giving a breakdown of the payments, he said N54.6m was paid for the revoked Oko-Baba Sawmill, while N26m was paid for the construction of Okota/Itire Link Bridge.

He added that N14, 352,000 million was paid to residents displaced by the Agbowa Housing Scheme while N500 million was paid to Messrs Ocean Trust in Oregun as compensation for acquired land.

N40 million compensation was also paid to one Mr. Adeleke Lawrence of Ago Palace Way, Okota, while N940, 347,860 compensation was paid for a project in Badagry.

Muri-Okunola said compensation payable in respect of projects such as Ketu/Ikorodu Expansion, Lekki–Epe Airport Project and Lekki Free Trade Zone Parcel B were under processing.

LASRRA on registration

On the total number of registered residents so far in the ongoing registration exercise, Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr. Fatai Mabadeje, said LASRRA, the agency responsible for the exercise had changed its strategy to ensure that more people were captured quickly to aid the state government planning project.

The commissioner, who expressed dissatisfaction with the response from the public said; “We have registered 1.6 million residents of Lagos state and we have changed our strategy to mobile.”