📖 ABSTRACT/OVERVIEW
Peri-urban land markets in Nigeria are characterised by intense competition between rural smallholders, urban elites, and real estate developers, generating widespread dispossession of long-term occupants through both formal legal mechanisms and extralegal coercion. Ogun State, situated in the South West geopolitical zone and experiencing significant spillover urbanisation from Lagos metropolitan area, presents a particularly acute context for studying land grabbing dynamics. This research conducts an empirical legal rights analysis of land dispossession in peri-urban Ogun State, examining the legal mechanisms through which dispossession occurs, the legal remedies available to affected communities, and the structural factors that limit effective rights assertion. A mixed-methods methodology was employed, combining qualitative fieldwork in three peri-urban communities in Ogun Central Senatorial District with doctrinal analysis of relevant Land Use Act provisions, certificate of occupancy processes, and judicial precedents from 2018 to 2024. Secondary sources include land rights monitoring reports from the International Land Coalition, academic political economy literature on urban land in Nigeria, and comparative African land law studies. The study develops an original analytical framework distinguishing between legally sanctioned dispossession, legally ambiguous acquisition, and clearly unlawful land grabbing in the Nigerian peri-urban context. Findings reveal that the Land Use Act's governor's consent mechanism is systematically exploited to facilitate elite dispossession. Recommendations for legislative reform and community land rights protection mechanisms are advanced. Keywords: land grabbing, dispossession, peri-urban, Ogun State, land rights.
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