Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),\u00a0Nyesom Wike,\u00a0has warned that his administration will seal up properties in the FCT for those who have failed to pay their ground rent.<\/h2>\n
He gave the warning while fielding questions during his monthly media parley in Abuja on Monday.<\/p>\n
The Minister asserted that he would not be deterred or care about any kind of blackmail.<\/p>\n
Naija News<\/strong> reports that Wike\u2019s administration has published the details of 9,000 debtors in newspapers, asking them to pay their ground rents to avoid the risk of forfeiture of their land.<\/p>\n The FCT Administration announced on May 23, 2025, that it would take possession of about 5,000 affected properties owing ground rents between 10 and 43 years and began sealing and taking over debtors\u2019 properties, including the PDP national secretariat.<\/p>\n President Bola Tinubu granted the defaulters a 14-day grace period to settle their outstanding payments and penalties<\/p>\n However, speaking about the matter on Monday, Wike said, \u201cI laugh, and it\u2019s unfortunate. I thank God Mr. President said give them two weeks, one month. Well, it\u2019s more than three months. That is Nigeria for you.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to seal up all those property. I\u2019m going to seal it up. You can\u2019t deny us of the taxes we use for development.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Give them two weeks, give them one month.\u2019 We\u2019ve done that. Some have complied. Tomorrow, by the time you start doing this, of course, the normal politics will come out. All kinds of things that we say, I will not listen to that.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIf you have not complied, if you have not paid, we are going to seal it. There\u2019s no magic of talking more, talking this. You can blackmail me all you want.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n