The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has approved the cancellation of 485 land documents in Abuja after they failed official verification and authenticity checks.
The affected land titles were nullified following a comprehensive review carried out by the Department of Land Administration in collaboration with the Abuja Geographic Information Systems. Officials disclosed that several of the documents were confirmed to be forged and did not meet required validation standards.
In a public notice issued on Monday and marked Batch I, the Federal Capital Territory Administration announced that the invalid applications had been removed from the regularisation database. The notice was directed at applicants who submitted Area Council land documents for validation.
According to the FCTA, the Minister approved the cancellation of all applications that failed official checks for genuineness and were found to be fake. The cancelled titles span multiple Area Councils and layouts across the FCT.
In the 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 the Kuje Area Council was also listed.
Among the affected entities are the Redeemed Christian Church of God and the Ministry of Justice Staff Multi-purpose Cooperative Society, among others.
Under Nigerian law, all land within the FCT is vested in the Federal Government, and Certificates of Occupancy must be processed through the Office of the FCT Minister and formalised by AGIS.
The cancellations are part of broader land administration reforms by the FCTA aimed at eliminating forged documents, double allocations, and irregular land grants. The reforms intensified after authorities revealed that only 8,287 out of 261,914 Area Council land documents submitted between 2006 and 2023 had been screened, leaving over 96 per cent still pending verification.
