08/09/2026
𝐄𝐃𝐎𝐆𝐈𝐒, 𝐍𝐁𝐀 𝐁𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐍 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐇 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐅𝐑𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊 𝐎𝐍 𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐀𝐃𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐃𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐘 𝐕𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐓
𝘽𝙮 𝙈𝙪𝙮𝙞𝙬𝙖 𝘼𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙖 / 𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙊𝙜𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙖 𝘽𝙖𝙢𝙖𝙬𝙤
BENIN CITY — The Edo State Geographic Information Service (EDOGIS) on Monday received a delegation from the Nigerian Bar Association, Benin Branch, on a courtesy visit aimed at strengthening cooperation between the legal profession and the state's land administration institution. The delegation was led by a member of the Edo State House of Assembly and included Hon. Charity Aiguobarueghian, Bright O. Iluobe Esq., Secretary of the NBA Benin Branch, and Famous Onoriode Edafeyivowotu, Assistant Secretary of the branch.
Speaking on behalf of the association, the leader of the delegation briefed the EDOGIS management on a bill currently before the Edo State House of Assembly seeking to formalise the remittance of statutory fees accruing from land documentation. He explained that under an arrangement already in practice, ten percent of a lawyer's fee on any land transaction is set aside as a duty, with one percent going to the NBA branch that authenticates the instrument and one percent due to the state government. He noted that although the practice had been running for over a year, the government's share had not been remitted because the enabling law had yet to be domesticated, and it was to close this gap that he sponsored the Land Instrument Documentation Law, which has since scaled second reading at the House of Assembly. He called on EDOGIS, as the agency now responsible for land matters, to support the bill's passage and implementation.
Responding, the Managing Director of EDOGIS, Assoc. Prof. Innocent Ehiaguina Bello, FNCA, welcomed the delegation and described the legal profession as a critical partner in the administration, documentation, protection and transfer of interests in land. He noted that lawyers are often at the frontline of land transactions, advising clients, preparing instruments, conducting searches and providing legal opinions, and reaffirmed that EDOGIS remains committed to providing a secure mechanism through which practitioners can verify the status, ownership and authentication of land documents.
While welcoming the proposed remittance framework, Dr. Bello raised concerns over the current one-percent share accruing to government from land transactions, arguing that this was disproportionate given that government bears responsibility for maintaining land records, conducting surveys, issuing statutory titles and running the digital land registry. He stressed that the position was not an argument against lawyers' legitimate professional fees, but a call for fairness and proper alignment of responsibilities, costs and benefits across the land administration ecosystem. He also cautioned against any framework that would duplicate or transfer government's statutory land functions outside the established administrative structure, and disclosed that EDOGIS had, weeks earlier, held preliminary talks with a prospective investor on developing a web-based digital land registration platform that would allow automated, transparent disbursement of transaction proceeds to all parties, including government.
The Managing Director further stressed that land administration is not the exclusive preserve of any single profession, noting that surveyors, town planners, estate surveyors and valuers, geoinformatics professionals, architects, developers and financial institutions all have complementary roles to play, and that the efficiency of the system depends on these roles being properly coordinated rather than duplicated. He proposed several areas for closer collaboration between EDOGIS and the Bar, including secure digital verification of land documents, improved access to authentic cadastral and title information, joint efforts against forged documents and multiple land sales, professional sensitisation programmes for lawyers on modern land administration procedures, and improved turnaround time for land searches and authentication.
In his response, the delegation leader clarified that the ten percent fee in question is the lawyer's professional charge on a transaction and is distinct from statutory land registration fees payable to government, illustrating that on a ten-million-naira land transaction attracting a one-million-naira legal fee, one hundred thousand naira would go to the NBA and a further one hundred thousand naira to the state government as tax on the transaction, leaving the lawyer with eight hundred thousand naira. He appealed to the Managing Director to support the pending bill so that the existing informal practice could be given full legal backing, with a clear commencement date fixed for the remittance obligation once the law is passed.
Members of the delegation also raised the matter of unregulated charges by informal land agents, some of whom reportedly collect fees as high as twenty percent from unsuspecting buyers without documentation, a practice both sides agreed constitutes exploitation and requires regulation. Discussion also touched on the responsibilities of lawyers to advise clients on registering land instruments, with a member of the delegation noting that a lawyer's ten percent fee is not merely for drafting an agreement but comes with a duty to conduct due diligence and search on the property and to ensure that registrable instruments are duly registered.
A separate concern was raised regarding a cluster of seven communities holding some of the most fertile farmland in the state, portions of which have reportedly been progressively allocated to investors since a previous administration, leaving the communities with less than twenty percent of their original landholding and facing further encroachment. The Managing Director assured that EDOGIS would examine the matter through cartographic verification of the land in question and undertake due diligence on the competing claims, while noting that government retains supervening power over land under the Land Use Act but would give consideration to the livelihood needs of indigenous farming communities in any future allocation.
Both sides expressed commitment to building a land administration ecosystem in Edo State anchored on cooperation rather than competition, with EDOGIS reiterating its support for the reform agenda of the administration of His Excellency, Senator Monday Okpebholo, towards a safer, more prosperous and investment-friendly state through modern, transparent and technology-driven land administration.
