Over 4,700 properties face enforcement as Abuja administration moves to recover billions in lost revenue
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has sealed Wadata Plaza, the Abuja headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), along with buildings housing the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), over failure to pay ground and tenancy rents.
According to Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, Wadata Plaza owes ₦7.6 million in ground rent accrued over 28 years.
“On Wadata Plaza being used as PDP National Secretariat, ₦7,603,504.31 is being owed as 28 years’ Ground Rent,” Olayinka wrote on his Facebook page shortly after the building was sealed on Monday.
The FIRS, also affected by the enforcement, is reportedly owing for 25 years, while NAPTIP and a commercial bank housed in the same complex were also shut down.
The action follows repeated warnings from the FCTA, which recently lamented the loss of over ₦6 billion in unpaid ground rents spanning more than a decade. Last week, the administration announced it had revoked ownership of 4,794 properties in areas including Garki, Wuse, Asokoro, Maitama, Guzape, and the Central Area, citing non-payment of ground rent for between 10 and 43 years.
A joint statement by Olayinka and Mukhtar Galadima, Director of the Department of Development Control, declared that ownership of the revoked properties has reverted to the FCTA and that enforcement would begin this week.
“As usual, this will be done without consideration as to ownership of the affected landed properties. It will be purely in line with extant laws and regulations guiding the process,” the statement read.
