Land Grabbers: How To Avoid Issues With "Omo Oniles"

Most Omo Onile in Nigeria claim to be indigenous residents of some communities and have put on themselves the right to sell and collect a payment, compensation, rents, and taxes from those they pronounce as tenants, non-indigenes, or settlers. In most cases, these Omoniles operates like land grabbers, using force and all possible means to gain access and control over lands. Over time, they sell the same parcel of land to multiple buyers and interfere on land acquired legitimately by others. Sometimes, they make a difficult process for the land buyers to claim their possession after purchase by demanding illegal payments and threatening or attacking construction workers at building sites, posing threat to peace and security, and sometimes leads to heavy loss by private investors.
So you do not face any issue with them, the following steps should be considered.

Carry experts in the field along
By doing this, you can be sure of the fact that they can help carry out the necessary check on the property. They will be with you during the agreement signing and from the beginning till the end of the transaction to help you figure out every issue. 
Carry along with you a Surveyor and a Lawyer in order to avoid risk and wastage in your investment.

Confirm the real owner
There are situations where you’ll hear people tell you they paid to the wrong family or the wrong owner, this leads to having two owners for one parcel of land. Take your time to verify who owns the property to avoid issues in the nearest future.
To be on a safe side, we advise that you also carry along with the community representatives more, especially the Baale, who is the head of the community. It is important that you involve them in signing the deeds of assignment to avoid paying to the wrong owner too.

Register the survey of the property and be sure of your allocation
Make sure nothing delay allocation once you’ve paid, know where they are giving you and construct a corner piece on the edges of the property to avoid intruders into your property. Register the survey in your name to avoid issues as soon as you’ve taken possession and if possible apply for a C of O on the property if not given.

Start your construction
Once you are in possession of your property, the first step you should take is starting your construction immediately, it doesn’t matter how little even if you are starting with a little fence first. You should for no reason leave your property for a long period without doing anything as this may lead to resell of your property to another person which may lead you to relocate you to another site or in a worse situation, losing your property forever.

By doing all of this, you are free from issues coming from anybody claiming to be omoniles and all you have to do is take your time and follow all these tips.

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