By Ismaila Jimoh, Abuja
Federal Capital Territory Administration( FCTA) has sealed the building housing the People’s Democratic Party headquarters over failure to pay yearly ground rent in the last 28 years.
In a sealing exercise by the FCT Administration which also affected several other properties owing ground rent on Monday, Director of Land Administration FCTA, Mr. Chijioke Nwankwoeze disclosed that the property had since March been revoked and holders have been repeatedly informed to vacate the premises.
According to him: “Just like we briefed you last Friday that the FCT administration will commence the taking of possession of the 4,794 properties revoked for non-payment of ground rents, we started this morning we’ve gone to a number of properties and sealed them as we did say we will do.
” We are now at Wadata Plaza (not sure about name of plaza), where the PDP is occupying, that’s the property belonging to Senator Samaila Mamman Kofi that the PDP is occupying. I think this is the 9th or 10th site that we visited today and that we are sealing.
On whether the property holder was duly informed he said: ” Yes, the property holder whom we deal with, we don’t deal with occupants, we deal with property owners, we don’t deal with occupants or tenants. Senator Samaila Mamman Kofi was duly served the revocation notice and out of abundance of caution, we also came here and pasted the revocation notice served on Samaila Mamman Kofi at his Kaduna address, the address on record.
“Samaila Mamman Kofi is the owner of the property and the address we have in our records for him is that of Kaduna and we duly served him. This is a copy of the revocation notice and the evidence of service, this is him, served since the 14th of March 2025 and a copy of this was duly pasted at the gate of this building.
“So I don’t know if you are talking of writing to PDP, we don’t normally write to tenants or occupants, we write to the owners of the property, that is the with whom we have a contract.
Responding to question bothering on perception of the action as political witch hunt, the Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication and Social Media to the FCT Minister, Lere Olayinka said: We are not here for politics. If you are talking about political witch hunt, we have been to Ibro hotels, we have been to Access Bank, we have been to FIRS, we have been to Total Petrol Station, and we are still going to other places, and tomorrow we will go to other places, moreover this place is not owned by the PDP.
Making clarification on the fate of owners of the affected properties should they decided to pay the aforementioned ground rent, the Director of Land Administration explained,”Well, it will be up to them to approach the Honourable Minister of FCTA. FCTA is the owner of the property as of today. If they approach him, and he gives them any consideration, that’s it. It is for the minister to decide that. Not me.”
