The Kano State Government has announced that it will begin publishing the names of defaulters and owners of landed properties who have failed to recertify their Certificates of Occupancy, beginning Wednesday, April 9, 2025.
The announcement was made by the State Commissioner for Land and Physical Planning, Abduljabbar Umar, during a press conference held in Kano. He disclosed that the names will be published in national dailies as well as across selected government outlets.
According to him, this move comes after multiple extensions of the recertification deadline, with little response from some landowners. He warned that continued failure to comply could lead to the revocation of land titles in accordance with the provisions of the Land Use Act of 1978.
“You may recall that on January 24, 2025, we announced the extension of the recertification exercise of all issued Certificates of Occupancy (C-of-O) to April 1, 2025, to enable those that were yet to recertify their titles to do so within the extended window of time. This has provided the opportunity for more owners of the previous C-of-O to submit them for collection of the new, updated, and technologically advanced ones. You may equally recall that April 1, 2025, fell on the most recent public holiday of the Eid festivities. Therefore, in the spirit of Ramadan, the present announcement was suspended,” Umar explained.
He highlighted that since the exercise was flagged off by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf on November 25, 2024, the government has recorded considerable progress, especially in urban centres.
“On the other hand, I am delighted to mention that since the flag off of the recertification exercise by His Excellency the Executive Governor of Kano State, Alh. Abba Kabir Yusuf on November 25, 2024, remarkable achievements were achieved, which included the successful enumeration of all land properties within Nassarawa and Fagge Local Government Areas, as well as continuous enumeration of properties across Tarauni, Dala, Kano Municipal, and Gwale LGA’s. Here, I must commend the unconditional support of critical stakeholders, especially the Kano Emirate Council, Local Government Heads, as well as Community leaders across the named LGAs, whose unwavering commitment ensured the success of the exercise. So far, 241,025 properties across six metropolitan LGAs have been captured in our database since the beginning of the exercise.”
Umar further explained that the enumeration exercise is aimed at developing a reliable and comprehensive database on land and property ownership, including land utilisation and projected revenues.
“The Land Property Enumeration Exercise has the objective of providing a solid foundation for building an accurate, extensive and up-to-date database of Who resides in Kano State. Who owns land and properties in Kano State? Specific utilisation of each land-related property across the State (Home, School Filling Station, etc). Projected annual revenue from land-related properties (Ground rents, etc). Available land-related infrastructure across the State. Social infrastructure is required for different locations across the state, including approximate land-related tax revenue projections across the state, etc.”
Despite the government’s sensitisation campaigns and repeated time extensions, the commissioner lamented that many landowners have continued to ignore calls to recertify their documents.
“However, despite the positive effort being made through multiple chances of sensitising the public as well as an extension of the time limit, it is quite unfortunate that many have decided to be lackadaisical and aloof to all forms of entreaties to safeguard their land assets by recertifying them. Unfortunately, this attitude can make them vulnerable to complete loss of their land asset through revocation under section 28(5) of the Land Use Act 1978.”
To provide one final opportunity, the government has now granted a further 60-day extension.
“Therefore, based on further considerations, the Government wishes to announce a further extension of the recertification period for a further 60 days. The implication of this is that defaulters face having the titles as per statutory provisions of the Land Use Act 1978. In this spirit, the names of defaulters shall be published across National dailies starting tomorrow for their notice and necessary action.”
He added that the publication of names will not be limited to newspapers, but will also be posted at various public institutions.
“The names shall be published in newspapers and selected government outlets, including The Kano State Library, Audu Bako Secretariat, Gidan Murtala, and the Kano State High Court, amongst other places. These individuals are enjoined to come forward and take necessary actions in order to avoid revocation of their land titles.”
Umar concluded by urging property owners to act swiftly.
“Let me reiterate that the recertification process continues unperturbed, and I strongly encourage everyone to hurry and recertify their title documents or process the new title document before the deadline of 30 May 2025 to avoid any unpleasant experience,” he stated.
