Abuja: Wike Vows To Revoke Land Titles, Warns Speculators

Fresh from his inauguration as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike has issued a strong warning to land speculators in the nation’s capital Abuja.

Your land titles will be revoked, the minister told land ‘marketers’ in his first public statement.

The former Governor of Rivers State gave the warning barely a few hours after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu inaugurated him and 44 others as cabinet ministers.

His appointment as the first FCT Minister of southern extraction, last week, by President Tinubu came as a rude shock to not a few Nigerians who praised the president for the bold step and predicted that the former Rivers helmsman will likely change the manner things are done in the nation’s capital.

Those who made the prediction appear to be right that Wike, for instance, will try to restore the FCT master plan which has been distorted over the years by some residents.

In his first comment as the FCT minister on Monday Wike warned that he will step on toes in trying to make things right in Abuja.

“If you know you have built where you are not supposed to build, it will go down. Be it a minister of anywhere, be it an ambassador… if you know you have developed where you are not supposed to, your house will go down,” he said.

According to him, “Those who have taken over the green areas to build, sorry. The green areas must come back.

“So if you know anyone involved, that has taken over the green areas or parks and turned them to restaurants, we will not accept that.

“If your father has done that, sorry. If your mother has done that, sorry. There’s nothing I can do. It will go down.

“There is refuse everywhere. Those who are paid for refuse collection, what are they doing?”

“And those doing land marketing, the period for that is over,” he said.

“And those who have been given CofO (certificate of occupancy) and failed to develop, and they have become land speculators, the land is gone. I will revoke them.”

The former governor has received wide applause for changing the face of infrastructure in Rivers state as a governor.

He will likely replicate the same achievement as FCT Minister, close watchers of the nation’s capital said.