The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has approved the cancellation of 485 land documents in Abuja after they failed to meet verification standards set by the authorities.

The affected documents were nullified following an extensive review conducted by the Department of Land Administration in collaboration with the Abuja Geographic Information Systems.

Officials said that the documents did not pass authenticity checks, with many confirmed to be fake.

In a public notice issued by the Federal Capital Territory Administration on Monday and marked as Batch I, authorities confirmed that the invalid applications had been removed from the regularisation database. The notice specifically addressed applicants who had submitted Area Council land documents for validation.

“This is to inform the general public, particularly applicants who submitted Area Council land documents for regularisation, that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory has approved the nullification or cancellation of applications that failed the necessary official checks for genuineness and have been confirmed to be fake,” the notice read.

The cancelled documents span several Area Councils and layouts. In the Bwari Area Council, the 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 areas.

Those affected include the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Ministry of Justice Staff Multi-purpose Cooperative Society among others.

Under Nigerian law, all land within the FCT is vested in the Federal Government. Certificates of Occupancy and other land titles must be processed through the office of the FCT Minister and formalised by AGIS.

The latest action comes amid ongoing land administration reforms initiated by the FCTA to address longstanding challenges, including forged documents, double allocations and irregular grants allegedly issued by some Area Councils.

The cancellations form part of a broader regularisation exercise that has been underway for months.

The background to the reforms dates back to last year, when the FCTA disclosed that only 8,287 out of 261,914 Area Council land documents submitted between 2006 and 2023 had been screened.

The 8,287 vetted land documents represented just 3.2 per cent of the total submissions, leaving 253,627 documents pending in the database.

FCDA officials acknowledged that progress had been slow over the years, noting that 96.8 per cent of submissions were still awaiting clearance. (The PUNCH)

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