PROPERTY RIGHT AND ADVERSE POSSESSION OF REGISTERED LAND IN LAGOS STATE: RESTITUTION AS A PANACEA

Abstract

The doctrine of adverse possession reinforces the statutes of limitation that merely terminate the owner’s right to access judicial remedy in recovering possession of land and provides that the adverse possessor actually gains legal title, displacing the registered land owner. The major challenges of the concept of adverse possession of registered land which have sparked global reform of the doctrine remain its ability to defeat the concept of property right, its inability to be reconciled with the concept of indefeasibility of title hampering economic development. The Lagos State Land Registration Law 2015 (‘LRL’) nevertheless allows for the override of registered title to land by adverse possession. The article adopted doctrinal methodology to analyse the provisions of the Law on adverse possession vis-à-vis the concept of property right and land registration and found that registered land owners are not adequately protected. The work therefore recommended the application of the established principle of restitution founded on unjust enrichment as the best method to adequately protect the interest of registered land owners in Lagos State.