{"id":67160,"date":"2025-06-02T16:29:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T16:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=67160"},"modified":"2025-06-02T16:29:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T16:29:21","slug":"no-excuse-for-dodging-ground-rent-wike-tells-maitama-asokoro-property-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/06\/02\/no-excuse-for-dodging-ground-rent-wike-tells-maitama-asokoro-property-owners\/","title":{"rendered":"No Excuse for Dodging Ground Rent, Wike Tells Maitama, Asokoro Property Owners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has declared that residents of Abuja\u2019s elite districts such as Maitama, Asokoro, Wuse 2, Guzape, and the Central Business District have no excuse for failing to pay ground rent on their properties.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during his monthly media briefing on Monday in Abuja, Wike said it was dishonest for affluent property owners to claim financial hardship as a reason for defaulting on statutory land charges, especially while living in some of the most expensive parts of the city.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s stop pretending,\u201d the minister said. \u201cPoor people don\u2019t live in Maitama or Asokoro. So when someone living in these areas says they can\u2019t afford ground rent, it\u2019s simply not credible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He accused many of Nigeria\u2019s elites of double standards, noting that while they promptly pay property taxes abroad, they often neglect their obligations in Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have homes in London, Dubai, or the U.S., and they pay taxes there without complaints. But here, they behave as if nothing will happen even if they default,\u201d Wike stated.<\/p>\n<p>He also criticized the entitlement mentality among some property owners who expect reminders before paying their dues. \u201cYou hold a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O), which means you\u2019re fully aware of your responsibilities. In what country do you own luxury property and expect to be begged to pay what is legally due?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wike emphasized that the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), will continue sealing properties of defaulters.<\/p>\n<p>He said enforcement operations, which temporarily paused due to the recent 19-day project commissioning exercise, would resume immediately.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce we\u2019re done with the commissioning phase, enforcement continues. Anyone who defaults on ground rent should be prepared. There will be no exceptions,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n<p>The minister\u2019s remarks underscore a renewed effort by the FCTA to improve revenue generation and ensure that property owners, particularly in upscale neighborhoods fulfill their civic obligations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAffluence comes with responsibility,\u201d Wike said. \u201cIf we must build and maintain a world-class capital, then everyone must do their part.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adenike Lawal &nbsp; The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has declared that residents of Abuja\u2019s elite districts such as Maitama, Asokoro, Wuse 2, Guzape, and the Central Business District have no excuse for failing to pay ground rent on their properties. Speaking during his monthly media briefing on Monday in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":67135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67161,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67160\/revisions\/67161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}