Wike Nullifies Over 400 Land Titles In Abuja

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has approved the cancellation of 485 land documents in Abuja after they failed to meet official verification standards.

The revocation followed a comprehensive screening exercise conducted by the Department of Land Administration in collaboration with the Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS).

According to officials, the affected documents did not pass authenticity checks, with several confirmed to be fake.

In a public notice issued on Monday and marked Batch I, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) announced that the invalid applications had been removed from the regularisation database. The notice was directed at applicants who had submitted Area Council land documents for validation.

“This is to inform the general public, particularly applicants who submitted Area Council land documents for regularisation, that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory has approved the nullification or cancellation of applications that failed the necessary official checks for genuineness and have been confirmed to be fake,” the notice stated.

The cancelled documents cut across several Area Councils and layouts in the FCT.

In Bwari Area Council, affected locations include Ushafa Village Expansion Scheme, Ushafa Extension and Dawaki Extension 1.

Within the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), the impacted districts include Kurudu-Jikwoyi Relocation, Kurudu Commercial, Karu Village Extension, Nyanya Phase IV Extension, Jikwoyi Residential, Sabon Lugbe and Lugbe I Extension.

Kuchiyako One layout in Kuje Area Council was also listed among the affected areas.

Among those impacted by the cancellations are the Redeemed Christian Church of God and the Ministry of Justice Staff Multi-purpose Cooperative Society, among others.

Under Nigerian law, all land within the FCT is vested in the Federal Government. Certificates of Occupancy and other land titles are processed through the office of the FCT Minister and formalised by AGIS.

The latest cancellations are part of ongoing land administration reforms by the FCTA aimed at addressing longstanding challenges, including forged documents, double allocations and irregular grants allegedly issued by some Area Councils.

The action forms part of a broader regularisation exercise that has been underway for several months.

The reforms gained momentum last year when the FCTA disclosed that only 8,287 out of 261,914 Area Council land documents submitted between 2006 and 2023 had been screened.

The vetted documents represented just 3.2 per cent of total submissions, leaving 253,627 applications pending in the database at the time.

Officials acknowledged that progress had been slow over the years, with 96.8 per cent of submissions still awaiting clearance, underscoring the scale of the verification exercise currently being undertaken by the administration.