Claim: Sierra Leone’s Minister of Lands claims no one owns land in Sierra Leone.
Verdict: Misleading. The Customary Land Rights Act, 2022 and other laws expressly recognise the right to own land. However, a person’s claim to land by conveyance depends on the title, interest, and compliance with the law.
Full Text
A Facebook handle, the Lawyers’ Society Sierra Leone, shared a video (archived here) showing Sierra Leone Minister of Lands, Housing and Country Planning, Turad Senesie, claiming at the weekly press conference that no citizen owns any land in the country.
“As it is by law, I dey talk am with authority that there is no landowner in Sierra Leone. Weytin you get wey you dey call conveyance? Saying me I get land paper. Me na landowner. I get conveyance. That is just evidence that there’s been a transaction between you and the person that owns the land,” the minister partly said.
Turad further asserted that no citizen in the country has a rightful claim to any land, regardless of location. He insisted that all lands belong to the Sierra Leonean government.
“But no be you get the land. That land dey as it is. As I dey talk so now today is owned by the state, whether na Freetown ooo, whether na upline ooo, na the government of Sierra Leone, na him get the land. Why? Because you np get title to that land,” Turad claimed.
Similar videos were shared here and here.
As of Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, the claim has garnered 129 likes, 56 comments, and ten shares.
Meanwhile, some Sierra Leonean residents disagreed with the minister.
“He is too quick to pronounce on legal matters without first consulting a lawyer,” Benjamin Aiah Gando commented.
“Land ownerships that are even older than the age of the formation of Sierra Leone government,” Senneh Albert Mansaray mocked.
The minister’s speech has attracted significant engagement, and because of its tendency to mislead the public, DUBAWA decided to verify it.
Verification
Sierra Leone has different forms of land tenure and recognised interests in land. The legal position differs between the Western Area and the provinces, but the law recognises persons, families, and communities with legally protected interests and rights in land.
Sierra Leone’s legal framework encompasses varied tenure systems alongside statutory rights in landed property. While statutory provisions distinguish between the provincial areas and the Western Area, national legislation firmly establishes individual ownership alongside protected proprietary interests.
DUBAWA examined the claim against Sierra Leone’s land laws, including the Customary Land Rights Act 2022, the National Land Commission Act 2022, the State Lands Act 1960, the Limitation Act, 1961, and relevant decisions of the Sierra Leonean courts.
What does Sierra Leonean law say about owning land?
The Customary Land Rights Act, 2022, provides evidence against the broad suggestion that Sierra Leonean law does not recognise individual rights to own or hold land.
Section 5(1) of the Act recognises the right to own, hold, use, inherit, succeed to, or deal with land without discrimination. The provision forms part of the Act’s protection of customary land rights and gender equality.
The Act therefore expressly recognises ownership and land rights within the customary land system. It also recognises different categories of customary land interests, including family and community interests. The legislation provides mechanisms to recognise, protect, and register customary land rights.
The National Land Commission Act, 2022, also provides a statutory framework for administering and registering customary land rights and interests.
How can a person acquire an interest in land in the provinces?
Under the customary land system in the provinces, families, communities, and other customary landholding structures may hold land.
The Customary Land Rights Act provides for the Chiefdom Council and family land title, creating a formal mechanism to identify and document customary land rights. The legislation also protects individuals’ rights to own, hold, use, and inherit customary land.
This means that a person may acquire an interest in provincial land through mechanisms recognised under customary law, including inheritance or succession, family land rights, allocation or grant through the recognised customary landholding structure, and lawful transactions involving customary land.
The 2022 reforms are important because they did not abolish customary ownership. Instead, they established a framework to recognise, protect, and register customary land rights.
The National Land Commission Act 2022 also established the National Land Commission and District Land Commissions and repealed the former Provinces Land Act. The new framework was intended to address long-standing land disputes and regulate land administration in the provinces.
What about the Western Area?
The Western Area’s position has a different historical and statutory foundation. The State Lands Act, 1960 (Act No. 19 of 1960) historically vested land in the Western Area in the State. However, that does not mean that nobody can acquire or hold a legally recognised interest in Western Area land.
Land in the Western Area can be held through recognised legal interests, including grants, leases, transfers and other forms of title or interest recognised by law.
A person may also acquire rights through a lawful transaction with an existing title holder. In such circumstances, a conveyance may be used to document the transfer.
However, describing a conveyance simply as a “certificate” that creates no ownership would be an oversimplification.
Is conveyance the same thing as ownership?
Not exactly. According to the Conveyancing and Land Property Act 1881, a conveyance is a legal instrument that relates to the transfer of an interest in land. Its legal effect depends on the nature of the interest being transferred, the person transferring it, the underlying title, and the applicable registration requirements.
Importantly, a conveyance does not automatically mean the person who holds it has an indefeasible title, regardless of the land’s history.
Sierra Leonean courts have repeatedly examined the relationship between documentary title and possessory title.
In a 2024 High Court decision, the court considered whether possessory title could establish a good title to land and referred to earlier Sierra Leonean authorities, including Cole v Cummings, Mansaray v Williams, and John and Macaulay v Stafford. The court stated that, in appropriate circumstances, possessory title can be as weighty as documentary title.
The court further explained that a person relying on possessory title must establish more than mere possession. The claimant must establish a better title and, where applicable, demonstrate that the title of the true owner has been extinguished through the operation of adverse possession and limitation law.
This is significant because it demonstrates that Sierra Leonean land law does not operate solely on a piece of paper called a conveyance.
Adverse possession can also affect land rights
Another important part of the legal framework is adverse possession. The Limitation Act, 1961 (Act No. 51 of 1961) contains provisions dealing with actions to recover land and adverse possession.
Section 5(3) provides, in substance, that an action to recover land cannot be brought more than 12 years after the right of action accrued, subject to the Act’s provisions. The courts have relied on these provisions when considering claims based on adverse possession.
The Sierra Leone High Court also discussed adverse possession in relation to Western Area land and the State Lands Act. The judgment considered the statutory limitation period applicable to State ownership and explained how adverse possession can, in circumstances recognised by law, affect the State’s title.
This does not mean that simply occupying somebody else’s land automatically makes the occupier the owner. Adverse possession has strict legal requirements and must be established according to the applicable law and facts.
Other ways land rights may arise
The legal framework shows that land rights in Sierra Leone can arise in several ways, depending on the location and type of land.
These include purchase or sale from a person or entity with a valid interest capable of being transferred, inheritance or succession, including customary succession to family land, customary land rights, particularly in the provinces, family land ownership and family land title, community land rights under the customary land system, government grants or allocations where applicable, leasehold interests, which are legally recognised interests in land, gifts or other lawful transfers of interests in land, possessory title, where the legal requirements are satisfied, adverse possession, where the statutory requirements have been established, and court-recognised title or interests, following litigation concerning ownership or possession.
The Customary Land Rights Act specifically recognises rights to own, hold, use, inherit, succeed to and deal with customary land, while the National Land Commission Act provides an institutional framework for land administration and registration.
Why the Minister’s statement is misleading
The minister’s statement is misleading if interpreted as suggesting that Sierra Leone has no landowners or that ownership exists only because of a conveyance. The law clearly recognises ownership, possession and other legally protected interests in land.
At the same time, it would also be incorrect to say that possession of a conveyance automatically settles every question of ownership. The validity of the transfer depends on the title of the person conveying the land, the nature of the interest being transferred, compliance with applicable law and, where required, registration.
In other words, a conveyance is important, but it is not the entire law of land ownership in Sierra Leone.
The distinction between documentary title and possessory title recognised by the courts further demonstrates that land rights cannot be reduced to the existence of a conveyance alone.
Conclusion
The claim that Sierra Leone law does not recognise land ownership is misleading. The Customary Land Rights Act, 2022 expressly recognises the right to own land. While the possession of a conveyance may settle the question of ownership, it also depends on a person’s title and compliance with the law.