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The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has approved the cancellation of 485 land titles in Abuja after they failed to meet prescribed verification standards.
The decision followed an extensive audit conducted by the Department of Land Administration in collaboration with the Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS). Officials said a significant number of the reviewed documents were found to be inauthentic and could not withstand required checks.
In a public notice issued on Monday by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and tagged Batch I, authorities confirmed that the affected applications had been removed from the regularisation database. The notice was specifically addressed to applicants who 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 read.
According to the FCTA, the voided titles span several Area Councils and layouts. In the Bwari Area Council, the affected locations include Ushafa Village Expansion Scheme, Ushafa Extension and Dawaki Extension 1.
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Within the Abuja Municipal Area Council, the impacted areas 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 the Kuje Area Council was also named among the affected locations.
Some of the title holders impacted by the cancellation include organisations such as the Redeemed Christian Church of God and the Ministry of Justice Staff Multi-purpose Cooperative Society, alongside other individuals and corporate bodies.
Under Nigerian law, all land within the Federal Capital Territory is vested in the Federal Government. Certificates of Occupancy and other land titles are required to be processed through the office of the FCT Minister and duly formalised by AGIS.
Officials said the latest cancellations are part of broader land administration reforms being implemented by the FCTA to tackle longstanding problems, including forged documents, double allocations and irregular land grants allegedly issued by some Area Councils.
The action also forms part of an ongoing regularisation exercise that has lasted several months. The reforms trace back to 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.
Those 8,287 verified documents accounted for just 3.2 per cent of the total submissions, leaving 253,627 applications pending in the database. Officials of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) had acknowledged that progress over the years had been slow, with about 96.8 per cent of submissions still awaiting clearance.
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