What excision means
Excision is government letting go of land it had taken.
State governments acquire large areas of land for public purposes. Within those acquisitions there are communities who were already living there. Excision is the formal process of carving out a portion and releasing it back to the original owners, usually the families or villages who occupied it.
Once land has been excised, the community can deal with it, including selling it. Where land has not been excised, it remains under government acquisition, and whoever bought it is exposed.
How it is used
You meet excision when buying land from a family or a community rather than from a private titleholder, which describes an enormous share of land transactions on the outskirts of Lagos, Ogun and other fast growing areas.
The seller says the land is excised. Your job is to confirm it. That means checking the government records, and specifically whether the excision has been published in the state gazette, because the gazette is the evidence that the release actually happened.
Key features
- Releases land from government acquisition back to the original community
- Evidenced by publication in the state gazette
- Usually covers a defined area described by survey coordinates, not a whole village
- Only excised land can be safely sold by a family or community
- Separate from, and earlier than, obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy
How this works in Nigeria
This is one of the most expensive things Nigerian land buyers get wrong. A plot is sold with a receipt and a family deed, and the buyer never asks whether the land was excised. Years later government moves on the area and the buyer discovers their land was never released in the first place.
The practical protection is a search. Verify the excision at the relevant state lands bureau, confirm the gazette reference, and check that the specific plot falls inside the excised area rather than merely near it. Being adjacent to excised land is not the same as being inside it.
Excision vs gazette vs C of O
Excision is the act of releasing the land. The gazette is the official publication recording that it happened, which is why people ask to see the gazette rather than the excision. In practice the gazette is the proof.
A Certificate of Occupancy is a further step and a different thing. Excision restores the land to the community. A C of O is the state's grant of a right of occupancy to a specific holder over a specific parcel. Land can be excised and gazetted, and an individual buyer within it may still go on to process their own C of O.
Limits and risks
Excision covers a defined area only. Sellers routinely wave a gazette that covers a neighbouring portion, or an area far larger than the plot they are actually selling. The gazette number means nothing until somebody confirms your specific plot sits inside the coordinates.
Excision also does not resolve who within the family has authority to sell. Land can be properly excised and still be sold by the wrong people, which leaves the buyer with nothing.
Worth knowing
Always ask for the survey plan and check that your specific plot falls inside the excised area described in the gazette. Sellers show gazettes covering land they are not selling you.