The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has approved the cancellation of 485 land documents in Abuja after they failed to meet verification standards set by authorities.
The affected documents were nullified following a comprehensive audit by the Department of Land Administration in collaboration with the Abuja Geographic Information Systems. Officials said many of the submissions did not pass authenticity checks and were confirmed to be fake.
In a public notice issued on Monday and marked “Batch I,” the Federal Capital Territory Administration said the invalid applications had been removed from the regularisation database. The notice was directed particularly at 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 statement read.
The cancelled documents span multiple Area Councils and layouts. In Bwari Area Council, affected locations include Ushafa Village Expansion Scheme, Ushafa Extension and Dawaki Extension 1.
Within the Abuja Municipal Area Council, impacted districts 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 Kuje Area Council was also listed.
Among those affected are organisations such as the Redeemed Christian Church of God and the Ministry of Justice Staff Multi-purpose Cooperative Society.
Under Nigerian law, all land within the FCT is vested in the Federal Government, with Certificates of Occupancy and other land titles processed through the office of the FCT Minister and formalised by AGIS.
The cancellations form part of ongoing land administration reforms by the FCTA aimed at tackling forged documents, double allocations and irregular grants allegedly issued by some Area Councils.
The reform process gained urgency last year when the FCTA revealed that only 8,287 out of 261,914 Area Council land documents submitted between 2006 and 2023 had been screened, representing just 3.2 per cent of total submissions, leaving more than 253,000 applications pending in the database. Officials acknowledged that 96.8 per cent of submissions were still awaiting clearance.
