…Reforms Gather Pace Amid Backlog Of 253,000 Applications
…AGIS Screening Exposes Forged Area Council Allocations
…Church, Cooperative Society Among Affected Beneficiaries
Daud Olatunji
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has revoked 485 land titles in Abuja after they failed to pass a stringent verification exercise, in what officials described as a major step to cleanse the territory’s troubled land administration system.
The cancellations followed a detailed screening conducted by the Department of Land Administration in conjunction with the Abuja Geographic Information Systems, which uncovered forged and irregular Area Council land documents presented for regularisation.
In a public notice issued on Monday and marked Batch I, the Federal Capital Territory Administration stated that the affected applications did not meet the required standards of genuineness and had been expunged from the regularisation database.
“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 read.
The revoked titles cut across multiple districts in the Bwari, Abuja Municipal and Kuje Area Councils.
In Bwari, the affected layouts include Ushafa Village Expansion Scheme, Ushafa Extension and Dawaki Extension I.
Within the Abuja Municipal Area Council, the impacted districts are 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 cancelled allocations.
Among institutions affected by the revocation are the Redeemed Christian Church of God and the Ministry of Justice Staff Multi-purpose Cooperative Society, raising fresh concerns over the scale of questionable land documentation within the FCT.
Under extant laws, all land in the FCT is vested in the Federal Government, and Certificates of Occupancy as well as other title documents must be processed through the office of the FCT Minister and formalised by AGIS.
The latest action forms part of sweeping reforms initiated by the FCTA to address longstanding irregularities, including forged titles, double allocations and alleged unlawful grants issued by some Area Councils.
The reform drive intensified last year after the administration revealed that only 8,287 out of 261,914 Area Council land documents submitted between 2006 and 2023 had been successfully screened.
The figure represents just 3.2 per cent of total submissions, leaving 253,627 applications—about 96.8 per cent—pending verification, underscoring deep-rooted inefficiencies in the capital’s land management system.
Officials acknowledged the slow pace of clearance but insisted that the ongoing batch-by-batch review would continue until the database is fully sanitised.
The FCTA maintained that the crackdown is aimed at restoring integrity to Abuja’s land registry, protecting genuine investors and ensuring transparency in property administration within the nation’s capital.
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