Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, after carrying out hist threat to seal the National secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party and 4,973 other properties who violated the law on payment of Ground Rent, has provided justification for the exercise.
At exactly 2:06 pm, a group of FCTA staff locked the entrance gate of Wadata Plaza, the PDP’s national secretariat located in Wuse Zone 5, Abuja.
This action follows the FCTA’s recent announcement on Friday stating its intention to reclaim properties affected by the revocation of 4,794 land titles due to non-payment of ground rent spanning 10 to 43 years.
Briefing journalists shortly after the exercise, the Minister who spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, explained that “we are not here for politics.
“If you are talking about political witch hunt, we have been to Ibro hotels, we have been to Access Bank, we have been to FIRS, we have been to Total Petrol Station, we are also still going to other places, and tomorrow we will go to other places.”
According to him ,”This exercise will continue as long as we are able to conclude the taking possession of those over 4,000 properties. So, are we also going to say all those ones that I mentioned are for politics?”
Also speaking, the director of Land in the FCTA, Chijioke Nwankwoeze, said the property holders were duly notified.
“Senator Samaila Mamman Kofi was duly served the revocation notice and out of abundance of caution, we also came here and pasted the revocation notice served on Samaila Mamman Kofi at his Kaduna address, the address on record,” Nwankwoeze said.
“Samaila Mamman Kofi is the owner of the property and the address we have in our records for him is that of Kaduna and we duly served him.
“This is a copy of the revocation notice and the evidence of service, this is him, served since the 14th of March 2025 and a copy of this was duly pasted at the gate of this building.”
On claims by the FIRS that it had paid the ground rents for the building that was sealed, Nwankwoeze said: “No, we keep good records. In this case, we are talking of 28 years.
“The owner of this property, Samaila Mamman Kofi, was owing 28 years ground rent. And then FIRS is 25 years. So we keep proper records.
“When you pay your ground rent, you will have to be issued with receipt of payment. Let the FIRS present the receipt of payment issued by the Lands Department or the FCTA, showing that they paid ground rent for 25 years on the property we went to. So those claims are not completely true.
“Some of them, like FIRS, they claim they own the property. But in our records, they don’t. If you buy property, you have to register your interest.
“The property which FIRS is occupying, where we just sealed before coming here, is owned by Fortunate Case Limited (not sure about this name). When we got there, they said they own the property. But obviously, they didn’t do what they needed to do, so that they will be recognized as the owners.”
In a reaction to the sealing off of properties exercise, the Human Rights Writers Association, (HURIWA) led by its coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said “Failure to pay ground rent by an “owner” should be an irregularity and such attracting penalty and not forfeiture as a primary recourse.”