Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo state has signed into law, the amended private property protection law 2017, a document which banned the notorious Community Development Associations (CDAs).
The law according to Obaseki, prescribed a maximum of five years jail term for offenders and also banned “all sorts of splinter groups like Okaigele or people who have come up to forcefully take other people’s landed properties in their communities”.
The amended bill is among three other bills passed into law by the State House of Assembly and assented to by the governor at the Government House in Benin City.
The governor said, “We have been waiting for this law to reconstitute the committee on protection of private property.
“Now that we have the law, we will be reconstituting this Committee within a fortnight using this law and utilizing more stringent measures to deal with erring individuals or communities trying to dispose innocent individuals of their landed properties.
“We are setting up a special court to swiftly try offenders and if guilty, they will certainly face the consequences.”
Other bills assented to by the governor are: the bill for the establishment of Flood, Erosion and Watershed Management Agency; amendment bill for the harmonized provision of the retirement age of staff of Polytechnics and Colleges of Education 2021.
Obaseki who hailed the legislature for facilitating the harmonisation of the retirement age for staff of polytechnics and other colleges of education in the state, added, “I thank you from heeding to the call of citizens.”
