{"id":68122,"date":"2025-06-15T15:59:04","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T15:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=68122"},"modified":"2025-06-16T06:04:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T06:04:19","slug":"fcta-deadline-sparks-last-minute-frenzy-among-ground-rent-defaulters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/06\/15\/fcta-deadline-sparks-last-minute-frenzy-among-ground-rent-defaulters\/","title":{"rendered":"Abuja ground rent defaulters in last minute rush to save land"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n

With less than 24 hours to the expiration of the Federal Capital Territory Administration\u2019s (FCTA), 14-day ultimatum, defaulters of ground rent flooded the Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS), office in a desperate bid to prevent their properties from being revoked.<\/p>\n

The ultimatum, issued on June 2, 2025, is part of FCTA\u2019s renewed drive to recover long-standing debts from property owners in Abuja.<\/p>\n

The administration had warned that failure to settle outstanding ground rents would result in immediate revocation of land titles and repossession of affected properties.<\/p>\n

Among the top defaulters are high-profile institutions, including the Nigerian Navy, Federal High Court, Nigeria Governors\u2019 Forum, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).<\/p>\n

Also listed are liaison offices of state governments such as Lagos, Osun, Adamawa, and Benue, along with 34 foreign missions.<\/p>\n

The Department of Land Administration revealed that the names and title numbers of 3,383 defaulters owing ground rent arrears spanning 10 to 43 years were published earlier this month.<\/p>\n

This figure is a reduction from the 4,794 listed in a similar exercise in March. At its height last year, over 9,000 names were publicized by the FCTA.<\/p>\n

When ACJ reporters visited the AGIS office, a crowd of over 100 individuals was seen waiting in line to process payments. While security officials barred media access to the premises, sources within AGIS confirmed a surge in compliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the highest response we\u2019ve had in years,\u201d said an AGIS staff member, who requested anonymity. \u201cSome owe just a little, but they don\u2019t want to risk property revocation.\u201d<\/p>\n

A security official at the gate added: \u201cIt\u2019s been nonstop. Many people just discovered they owe, and they\u2019re rushing to avoid penalties or being blacklisted.\u201d<\/p>\n

FCT Minister\u2019s spokesperson, Lere Olayinka, reiterated that the grace period would end on Monday, June 16.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe issued a clear two-week notice. Government will take the next steps immediately after the deadline,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In a surprising twist, the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police Force, and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), were also listed as defaulters, collectively owing over N1 billion in unpaid ground rent.<\/p>\n

The Nigerian Army alone owes over N1 billion for two Asokoro properties; one under its welfare scheme.<\/p>\n

The Nigeria Police reportedly owes N37 million, while the NIA\u2019s debt across two Asokoro properties amounts to just under N640,000.<\/p>\n

Attempts to obtain official responses from these agencies were unsuccessful, as calls and messages to their spokespersons went unanswered.<\/p>\n

However, a senior Army official, speaking on condition of anonymity, defended the Army\u2019s record.<\/p>\n

He claimed that payments for Plot 2302 in Asokoro had been made through December 2024 and that subdivision approvals were only granted after full payment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis resulted in two new plots – 13974 for Nigerian Army Properties Ltd. and 13975 for the Nigerian Army,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve not received any new communication from the FCDA regarding further dues in 2025. Threatening revocation in this context is unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Monday deadline approaches, tension is mounting among defaulters;both individuals and institutions, who now face the real risk of having their land titles withdrawn if they fail to clear their debts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adenike Lawal With less than 24 hours to the expiration of the Federal Capital Territory Administration\u2019s (FCTA), 14-day ultimatum, defaulters of ground rent flooded the Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS), office in a desperate bid to prevent their properties from being revoked. The ultimatum, issued on June 2, 2025, is part of FCTA\u2019s renewed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":68123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-68122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abuja-reports","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68122","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\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68122"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68165,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68122\/revisions\/68165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}