April 18, (THEWILL) – Chairman, Nigeria Institution of Surveyors, NIS, Ogun State chapter, Surv. Abiodun Liadi, has called on the state government to ensure the safety and security of members against the activities of land grabbers in the state.
He equally appealed to the police and other law enforcement agencies to treat members as professionals and not like touts whenever they meet them on site.
Liadi, who spoke in an exclusive interview on Friday, urged the Dapo Abiodun-led administration to protect the lives of surveyors against land grabbers wielding dangerous weapons on site to attack members.
He explained that these land grabbers are known to attack surveyors carrying out their duties using dangerous weapons, including cutlasses, broken bottles, machetes, and planks, which frequently results in injury or death.
The Chairman disclosed efforts by NIS to ensure that members were recognised by their Identity cards and reflective jackets, which he said would soon be launched to safeguard members from life-threatening attacks by land grabbers.
He said that such development would allow the police and other law enforcement agencies to differentiate professional surveyors from quacks and save them from unnecessary harassment and arrest by security personnel when a land dispute occurs.
Liadi also urged the FG to hasten its ‘mass land titling’ programme with the World Bank, whose focus is to certify single ownership of land, so as to rid the country of land grabbing activities and protect surveyors from constant attacks of land grabbers.
He said, “As a surveyor, the major challenge that we are facing is the issue of security of our members, you know, these days you hear of problems with land grabbing.
“It is still important that we live in a secure environment, especially in the case of land grabbers. You know, we meet the land grabbers on the site, and they come with dangerous weapons, and the lives of surveyors are at risk in such cases.
“So we thoroughly need security against land grabbers because the issue of land grabbers has to be completely resolved in the state and I believe that this programme called the ‘ mass land tilling’ will go a long way to go a long way to resolve the issue of land grabbing.
“This is actually the programme the federal government will start very soon with the support of the World Bank, they will want all the land in Nigeria to be tilted. And we believe surveyors should get seriously involved in such programmes, and this is to see private surveyors participating more in government programmes.
“We recently visited with the Commissioner of police and we discussed how to identify those who are professionals surveyors against fake ones that are working on site, the issue on how to recognise members with our identity cards, reflective jackets which very soon we will launch and the public will see it that these are true surveyors so that we will be handled differently whenever issues on lands occurs. So that when there are issues of land, the police and other law enforcement agents will know that these are professionals and set them aside and not arrest them”, he added.
