LD/DN/2026/11 · Desk Note · 2026-07-22

The Deed of Assignment, Explained

The deed of assignment is the instrument that actually moves the interest — and the most misunderstood document in the corridor. Two errors dominate. Purchasers who treat the deed as optional ("I have my receipt") hold proof of payment and nothing that passes land. Purchasers who treat the deed as everything ("I have my documents") hold an instrument that, standing alone, the Land Use Act renders incomplete. The deed is necessary and insufficient — both at once — and a purchaser who understands why holds the whole architecture of a Nigerian land transfer in one document.

What the deed is. Under the Land Use Act, what a "seller" of land actually holds is a right of occupancy; what a deed of assignment does is assign the unexpired residue of that right to the purchaser. A sound deed therefore tells the whole story in its own body: the recitals narrate the assignor's root — how the right came to him, by grant, prior assignment, or devolution — because a deed whose recitals cannot be verified is a chain with a missing link; the parcels clause identifies the land by reference to the registered survey plan, since an unidentifiable parcel is how double sales survive; the habendum states what is assigned and for what residue; and the execution blocks carry signatures, attestation, and — for a corporate assignor — the seal and authorised signatories. A deed missing any of these is not a shorter deed; it is a weaker title.

Why the executed deed is still not the end. Section 22 of the Land Use Act forbids alienation of a statutory right of occupancy without the Governor's consent first had and obtained, and section 26 voids what contravenes it. Since Savannah Bank v. Ajilo, the settled position is that an executed deed without consent is inchoate — effective as a contract between the parties, but not yet a transfer good against the world. The practical translation: on the day you sign, you hold an equity; only consent, stamping, and registration convert it into the legal interest. Registration matters for a second reason this series has already met: a registered instrument is notice to everyone who searches, which is what wins priority contests. An unregistered deed in a drawer protects no one from a second buyer who perfects first in good faith.

Deed versus certificate. A recurring corridor confusion: "should I collect a deed or a C-of-O?" They are different organs of the same body. The certificate evidences the right of occupancy itself; the deed is the instrument by which that right travels from one holder to the next. A purchaser typically takes the executed deed, processes consent, and — depending on the registry's practice — either has the vendor's certificate endorsed and the instrument registered, or in appropriate cases pursues a certificate in his own name. What a purchaser never sensibly does is accept the vendor's photocopied certificate plus a receipt as the transfer: that file contains evidence of the vendor's right and evidence of your payment, and no instrument moving the first in exchange for the second.

One drafting caution. The corridor's template deeds — bought, borrowed, or agent-supplied — routinely recite the wrong root, misdescribe the parcel, or omit attestation. A deed is not a form; it is the transaction's permanent legal memory, and errors written into it surface years later at consent, registration, or litigation, when they are most expensive to cure. This is a document worth drafting once and properly — the same discipline the pillar urges across every instrument: Why Land Transactions Die in Nasarawa.

This note is general information, not legal advice on any specific transaction. Deed in hand, or one being prepared for you? The desk's written 48-hour document verdict reads it before you sign.