₦airaland Forum

Ahead of the expiration of the 14-day ultimatum issued to ground rent debtors by the Federal Capital Territory Administration, landowners have continued to throng the office of the Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS) to save their property from takeover.

Among the top government entities owing large sums are the Nigerian Navy, the Department of Petroleum Resources, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, the Federal High Court, and the Federal Inland Revenue Service, all at risk of having their property repossessed.

State governments and their liaison offices in the capital — including Lagos, Kwara, Jigawa, Benue, Ondo, Adamawa, Osun, and Enugu — are equally listed as defaulters, as well as 34 foreign embassies.

The Department of Land Administration of the FCT in a publication on June 2, 2025, urged defaulters to fulfill their “obligations to the FCTA as stipulated in the covenanted terms and conditions of the Rights of Occupancy/Certificates of Occupancy”.

They added that the defaulters would have their land titles withdrawn and their land revoked if they failed to make the payments.

The publication had carried the names and title numbers of 3,383 defaulters owing ground rents between 10 and 43 years, down from the 4,794 defaulters whose land titles were revoked on March 13, 2025 and over 9,000 names published by the administration between September and October 2024.

When our correspondent visited the AGIS on Friday, security men had secured the entrance, preventing Sunday PUNCH’s interactions with debtors attempting to make payments, despite identifying himself as a member of the press.

No fewer than 100 defaulters were seen by our correspondent on a scattered queue at the AGIS office.

Sunday PUNCH gathered that there had been a “record-high” compliance following the notice by the administration.

“The compliance has been very high. You remember the task force sealed some offices and the President gave a 14-day ultimatum with penalties. Before that one expired, there was another publication with another 14-days grace period. So, there has been a rush to pay. It is a record-high compliance if you ask me,” a source in the AGIS office who declined to be named told Sunday PUNCH.

“People have started coming now, seriously. Even as of today. Do you see the circular? Some people are not owing much, but they have to come and pay the penalty,” a security officer at the gate told our correspondent.

Spokesperson for the FCT Minister, Lere Olayinka, said the 14-day ultimatum started on June 2.

He said, “We published the notice on June 2nd that they were given two weeks’ notice. Whatever decision that the government takes thereafter will be made public.”

A check by Sunday PUNCH showed that the notice would expire by the end of Monday, June 16, 2025.


Army, police, NIA risk property seizure

Meanwhile, some of the country’s leading security agencies, including the Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Police Force, and the National Intelligence Agency, were listed among over 3,000 titleholders owing ground rents to the FCTA.

The total ground rent debt owed by the three major security institutions amounted to N1,088,296,148.

According to a list of defaulters recently released by the FCTA, the Nigerian Army, which has landed property in Asokoro, is listed as debtor number 1,543, with an outstanding rent of approximately N50m.

Another Army-related property — the Special Vehicle Plant under the Nigerian Army Welfare Scheme, also in Asokoro — owes over N1bn and is listed as number 1,542.

The Nigeria Police Force is indebted to the tune of N37,658,484 for a property with title number MISC 129132, appearing at number 1,540 on the list.

The National Intelligence Agency also appears twice on the list. One of its lands in Asokoro owesN95,696, while another is in default of N541,968. The NIA is listed as number 1,925.


With a fresh ultimatum due to expire on Monday, June 16, the FCTA may resume enforcement actions, including sealing property and initiating revocation procedures.

Efforts to get official reactions from the concerned institutions were largely unsuccessful.

Calls and messages to the spokesperson of the Nigerian Army, Lt. Col. Onyema Anele, were not returned.

The police spokesperson, Muyiwa Adejobi, read a message sent to him but had not responded as of the time of filing this report.

The NIA, which does not have a known public affairs office, could not be reached.

Responding to the debt allegations, a senior Army official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, insisted that the Nigerian Army had fulfilled its obligations.

The official said, “In response to the ground rent issue, it is very important to state that the NA has paid its ground rent up to December 2024 for Plot 2302 Cadastral Zone A04 Asokoro to the FCDA. The payment receipts are readily available at Nigerian Army Properties Limited. It was after the payment that the Nigerian Army applied to the Honourable Minister FCT for the subdivision of Plot 2302 into the Army Barracks and the Army Command Estate Asokoro. After the minister’s approval, the property was subdivided into Plot 13974 in favour of the Nigerian Army Properties Ltd and Plot 13975 in favour of Nigerian Army (Bola Ahmed Tinubu.


“Please note that without the payment of the ground rent by the Nigerian Army, the approval wouldn’t have been possible. The NAPL is currently awaiting for the receipt of the Right of Occupancy from the FCDA in respect of each of the plots so that the appropriate bills for each of the properties will be paid to facilitate issuance of the respective C of Os. “

The senior official said since the commencement of the year there was no official communication to the Army, adding that it would be unfair for the FCTA to seal the service’s property.

“In summary, throughout the Year 2025, there was no communication between the FCDA and the NA or NAPL concerning ground rent.

“Therefore, it would be unfair for the FCDA to blacklist the NA concerning payment of ground rent. Please thank you very much for this opportunity, “ the source stated.

With just a day to go on the fresh ultimatum, pressure is mounting on all listed institutions and individuals to settle their debts or risk losing their properties to government sanctions.

AmazingELixir:
https://punchng.com/fct-ground-rent-payments-surge-24-hours-to-deadline/?utm_source=auto-read-also&utm_medium=web

AmazingELixir:
https://punchng.com/fct-ground-rent-payments-surge-24-hours-to-deadline/?utm_source=auto-read-also&utm_medium=web

IkeOnyia:
Hope the monies collected will be well utilized and not embezzled.

anonimi:
Water Scarcity Hits Maitama, Embassies Affected

Tue, 25 Feb 2025

A severe water scarcity has hit the downtown area of Maitama District in the Federal Capital City over the last two weeks, Abuja Metro reports.

Many parts of the affluent neighbourhood have been struggling with lack of pipe-borne water as the Federal Capital Territory Water Board supply has been off.

https://dailytrust.com/water-scarcity-hits-maitama-embassies-affected/

iwaeda:
It is good people pay rent to government, but it is better government behave responsibly to spend our money judiciously.

chisomkachy:
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s first supplementary budget includes a fleet of SUVs for himself and his wife, a presidential yacht and the renovation of his villa amid a cost-of-living crisis for some of the poorest people in the world.

The proposal — which seeks additional funding beyond the annual budget approved by Tinubu’s predecessor — comes as the government asks Nigerians to persevere through pain caused in part by a raft of economic reforms ushered in by the new president. Africa’s most populous country faces rampant unemployment, soaring food prices and a plummeting currency.

Federal lawmakers approved the president’s request for extra spending on Thursday, but eliminated the provision of 5 billion naira ($6.01 million) to buy a presidential yacht. Instead, they doubled the allocation to a student loan fund to 10 billion naira, according Abubakar Bichi, chairman of an appropriations committee in the House of Representatives.

The lawmakers approved 1.5 billion-naira proposed to purchase SUVs for the office of First Lady Oluremi Tinubu — an amount larger than that allocated to many individual federal colleges. The supplementary budget also proposes almost 6 billion naira to purchase SUVs for the presidency — more than the amount initially allocated to fund a student loan program for poor families.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-02/nigeria-budgets-for-suvs-and-yachts-amid-economic-hardship

Cherrybae:
Wike is really working and a No nonsense man.

Everybody in FCT are proud of wike. Come 2027, wike will deliver more than 25% to PBAT.

God bless wike
The Gburugburu 1 of Ndigbo

ogododo:
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has directed primary school teachers under the Local Education Authority (LEA) across the six area councils to resume their strike action from Monday, March 24, 2025.

The decision follows the failure of the council chairmen to implement the N70,000 new minimum wage in the February 2025 salary as promised.

Addressing journalists after an emergency State Wing Executive Council (SWEC) meeting held at the Teachers’ House in Gwagwalada on Sunday, the FCT NUT Chairman, Comrade Abdullahi Mohammed Shafas, expressed disappointment over the council chairmen’s refusal to honour the agreement reached with the union.

Shafas stated that the union had suspended its strike on February 21, 2025, based on the assurance that the new minimum wage would be implemented in February.

However, the February salary was paid without incorporating the new wage, a move the union described as “disturbing, disheartening, and lacking in sympathy, empathy, and sensitivity to the plight of primary school teachers.”

https://dailytrust.com/unpaid-minimum-wage-fct-pry-school-teachers-resume-strike-today/

IkeOnyia:
Hope the monies collected will be well utilized and not embezzled. I noticed that Peter Obi's firm, Next corp, was listed among the chronic debtors. Hope he has paid up because that man can stingy for Africa.

anonimi:
If the previous amounts were not well utilised then why would they utilise this amount well? What new incentive are you giving them to match your new hope?

In two years of increasing the tax burden on Abuja residents, for revenue outside the TSA, Wike has made water supply worse. What is more basic in government services and utilities than the provision of water?

AmazingELixir:
https://punchng.com/fct-ground-rent-payments-surge-24-hours-to-deadline/?utm_source=auto-read-also&utm_medium=web

AmazingELixir:
This Obidients that will never see anything good in other people except their twisted dreams.

You keep peddling this stale falsehood about non availability of portable drinking water in the fct ...but here is to burst your bubble.

Read up and break away from you bare faced deception for it can only work for your kinds in the Obidient movement.

https://dailypost.ng/2025/05/31/fct-water-board-announces-disruption-of-supply-in-abuja-charges-residents-to-seek-alternatives/

kettykin:
I think states should reciprocate and charge the federal government for all those federal government parastatals and federal ministries in their states. Anything outside this is leechocracy.