Section 108 Property and Conveyancing Law of the Western Region of Nigeria 1959

Section 108 of the Property and Conveyancing Law of the Western Region of Nigeria 1959 is about Mode of mortgaging freeholds. It provides as follows:

(1) A mortgage of an estate in fee simple shall only be capable of being effected
at law either by a demise for a term of years absolute, subject to a provision for
cesser on redemption, or by a charge by deed expressed to be by way of legal
mortgage:

Provided that a first mortgagee shall have the same right to the possession of
documents as if his security included the fee simple.

(2) Any purported conveyance of an estate in fee simple by way of mortgage made after the commencement of this Law shall (to the extent of the estate of the
mortgagor) operate as a demise of the land to the mortgagee for a term of years
absolute, without impeachment for waste, but subject to cesser on redemption, in manner following, namely:

(a) A first or only mortgagee shall take a term of three thousand years from the date of the mortgage;
(b) A second or subsequent mortgagee shall take a term (commencing from the date of the mortgage) one day longer than the term vested in the first or other mortgagee whose security ranks immediately before that of such second or subsequent mortgagee;

and, in this sub-section, any such purported conveyance as aforesaid includes an
absolute conveyance with a deed of defeasance and any other assurance which, but for this sub-section, would operate in effect to vest the fee simple in a mortgagee subject to redemption.

(3) This section applies whether or not the land is registered under the Land Titles Registration Law or the mortgage is expressed to be made by way of trust for sale or otherwise.

(4) Without prejudice to the provisions of this Law respecting legal and equitable
powers, every power to mortgage or to lend money on mortgage of an estate in fee simple shall be construed as a power to mortgage the estate for a term of years absolute, without impeachment for waste, or by a charge by way of legal mortgage or to lend on such security.