By Kingsley Adegboye

THE Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Lands Bureau, Mr. Bode Agoro has promised to push the call by estate surveyors and valuers for the creation of the office of State Valuer-General in view of the the enormous benefits it would engender.

Agoro who said Lagos was the first state in the country to create the Office of Solicitor-General, added that hopefully, it (Lagos) will again take the lead in the creation of Valuer-General.

He explained that there are qualified members of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, NIESV in the Lands Bureau to fill the position when carved out.

Agoro who was responding to requests by a delegation of the Lagos State branch of NIESV led by its chairman, Mr. Samuel Ukpong who paid him a courtesy visit last week, gave reasons why some executors of the Land Use Charge are acting unprofessionally.

According to him, Land Use Charge used to be under the Lands Bureau. He noted that it was ceded to the Ministry of Finance that does not have professionals on land matters.

“Land Use Charge used to be under us. But it is under Ministry of Finance now. May be this is why they collect double tax. They are not professionals in this area (land) but they are experts in collecting money”, Agoro said.

Orientation programmes

Stressing the need to organise orientation programmes for the workforce, Agoro said, “some illegalities are perpetrated in terms of land transactions and identifying the perpetrators is difficult. People try to circumvent us but we will also try to deal with them. This is why we are embarking on the reorientation of the thinking of our staff”, the P. S. said.

On the request for land by estate surveyors, Agoro assured them that land will be allocated but made it clear that he cannot guarantee the number of plots they requested for.

Also speaking, the Executive Secretary, Lands, Mr. Olukayode Ogunnubi said the Lands Bureau is being repositioned in a more professional manner.

Earlier, the Lagos NIESV boss, Mr. Ukpong called on the permanent secretary “to use your office to propagate the creation of office of Valuer-General in Lagos state”. He claimed that there is no inventory of government’s assets.

“Lets regularise things being done so that practitioners can be incorporated into governance,” he canvassed.

The Lagos NIESV chairman who stated that the double taxation inherent in the Land Use Charge’s implementation is giving his institution great concern, posited that rather than charging them on income tax and capital value tax, the charge should be on income tax alone.

According to him, capital value tax is usually more than income generated per annum.