Wike Defends Closure Of PDP Secretariat, FIRS Office
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has justified his recent action of sealing the National Secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party, along with 4,973 other properties that failed to comply with Ground Rent payment laws.
At precisely 2:06 pm, a team of FCTA personnel secured the entrance gate of Wadata Plaza, the PDP’s national headquarters situated in Wuse Zone 5, Abuja.
This move comes in response to the FCTA’s announcement made on Friday, which indicated its plan to reclaim properties impacted by the revocation of 4,794 land titles due to ground rent non-payment that has accumulated over a period of 10 to 43 years.
During a briefing with journalists shortly after the operation, the Minister, represented by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, stated, “we are not here for politics.”
“If you are talking about political witch hunt, we have been to Ibro hotels, we have been to Access Bank, we have been to FIRS, we have been to Total Petrol Station, we are also still going to other places, and tomorrow we will go to other places.”
According to him ,”This exercise will continue as long as we are able to conclude the taking possession of those over 4,000 properties. So, are we also going to say all those ones that I mentioned are for politics?”
Additionally, Chijioke Nwankwoeze, the director of Land in the FCTA, stated that the property owners had been properly informed.
“Senator Samaila Mamman Kofi was duly served the revocation notice and out of abundance of caution, we also came here and pasted the revocation notice served on Samaila Mamman Kofi at his Kaduna address, the address on record,” Nwankwoeze said.
“Samaila Mamman Kofi is the owner of the property and the address we have in our records for him is that of Kaduna and we duly served him.
“This is a copy of the revocation notice and the evidence of service, this is him, served since the 14th of March 2025 and a copy of this was duly pasted at the gate of this building.”
On claims by the FIRS that it had paid the ground rents for the building that was sealed, Nwankwoeze said: “No, we keep good records. In this case, we are talking of 28 years.
“The owner of this property, Samaila Mamman Kofi, was owing 28 years ground rent. And then FIRS is 25 years. So we keep proper records.
“When you pay your ground rent, you will have to be issued with receipt of payment. Let the FIRS present the receipt of payment issued by the Lands Department or the FCTA, showing that they paid ground rent for 25 years on the property we went to. So those claims are not completely true.
“Some of them, like FIRS, they claim they own the property. But in our records, they don’t. If you buy property, you have to register your interest.
“The property which FIRS is occupying, where we just sealed before coming here, is owned by Fortunate Case Limited (not sure about this name). When we got there, they said they own the property. But obviously, they didn’t do what they needed to do, so that they will be recognized as the owners.”
In response to the property sealing exercise, the Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA), headed by its coordinator Emmanuel Onwubiko, stated “Failure to pay ground rent by an “owner” should be an irregularity and such attracting penalty and not forfeiture as a primary recourse.”
