The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has ordered the cancellation of 485 land documents in Abuja after they failed to meet official verification criteria.
According to a comprehensive review by the Department of Land Administration and the Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS), the invalidated documents did not pass authenticity checks, with several found to be forged.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) confirmed the cancellations in a public notice released on Monday, identified as Batch I. The notice specifically addressed applicants who had submitted Area Council land documents for regularisation, informing them of the nullification due to failure in official genuineness checks and confirmation of forgery.
The cancelled documents span multiple Area Councils and layouts. In the Bwari Area Council, affected areas include Ushafa Village Expansion Scheme, Ushafa Extension, and Dawaki Extension 1. 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. Additionally, Kuchiyako One layout in Kuje Area Council was affected.
Among those impacted are organisations such as the Redeemed Christian Church of God and the Ministry of Justice Staff Multi-purpose Cooperative Society.
By law, all land within the FCT is vested in the Federal Government, and Certificates of Occupancy and other land titles must be processed through the FCT Minister’s office and formalised by AGIS.
These cancellations are part of ongoing land administration reforms by the FCTA to address issues such as forged documents, double allocations, and irregular grants from some area councils. The urgency of these reforms increased last year when the FCTA revealed that only 8,287 of the 261,914 Area Council land documents submitted between 2006 and 2023 had been reviewed—representing just 3.2% of the total. The remaining 253,627 documents are still pending clearance, with officials acknowledging that 96.8% of submissions await processing.
