Lands Minister, Benny Allen, has announced the creation of the Customary Land Acquisition Board (CLAB) which will have responsibilities to the Incorporated Land Group’s and the Land Title Holders.
Minister Allen said this during his Ministerial speech on the status of the Special Agriculture Businesses Leases (SABL’s) in Parliament on Thursday.
He said the creation of the Board was imminent “now that there is a need for the supervision of an oversight body on the time frames within which all applications are processed to enable speedy delivery of results.
“And as a matter of urgency, the Board will be preceded by a Committee to be established by the National Executive Council (NEC).
During his speech, Minister Allen also revealed that the Government has revoked all SABL’s and has called for the surrender of these licenses.
“I am pleased to announce that the Government has revoked and called for the surrender of all SABL titles and in set in place a process to convert all these titles and present them to customary landowners under the revised Incorporated Land Groups System and the new Voluntary Customary Land Registration System,” Minister Allen said.
“And the State should review the SABL Commission of Enquiry’s recommendations to revoke all the existing SABL’s, thus deal with them case by case through Mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) with the leadership of the National Court and the Judges, and or Mediators appointed by the Courts. This is because the indefeasibility of Land Titles must be respected at all times other wise chaos will reign over land throughout the country,” Minister Allen said.
Loop file photo