{"id":114956,"date":"2025-05-30T04:54:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T08:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/?p=114956"},"modified":"2025-05-30T04:54:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T08:54:20","slug":"wike-kingibe-lock-horns-over-ground-rent-enforcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/05\/30\/wike-kingibe-lock-horns-over-ground-rent-enforcement\/","title":{"rendered":"Wike, Kingibe Lock Horns Over Ground Rent Enforcement"},"content":{"rendered":"

A tense exchange erupted on Thursday between the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike<\/a>, and Senator Ireti Kingibe over the recent sealing of several Abuja properties due to unpaid ground rent.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Senator Kingibe, who represents the FCT in the Senate, condemned the enforcement action as unconstitutional and excessively forceful.<\/p>\n

In a statement released on May 26, 2025, via her official X account, she criticized the sweeping closures \u2014 which included prominent establishments such as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Secretariat and Access Bank branches \u2014 arguing that the move infringed on the rights of residents and business operators.<\/p>\n

Responding swiftly, Wike\u2019s office issued a counterstatement through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka. The minister\u2019s camp accused Senator Kingibe of exhibiting a “remarkable ignorance” of the Land Use Act and alleged she was using the matter to pursue a personal agenda against Wike.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is embarrassingly ignorant for a serving senator to be unaware of the provisions of Section 28 of the Land Use Act,\u201d Olayinka said. \u201cGround rent is not optional. It\u2019s a legal obligation tied to land ownership, and failure to pay it over 10, 20, even 43 years cannot be brushed aside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Read also: PDP: Wike\u2019s Political Deals Hold No Weight On Party<\/a><\/strong><\/h1>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He insisted that Kingibe\u2019s opposition was politically motivated and called on her to \u201cpurge herself of hatred for Wike,\u201d rather than shielding defaulters under the guise of defending legality.<\/p>\n

Senator Kingibe, however, maintained her position, arguing that while enforcement of ground rent is necessary, the method of sealing off properties without due process is illegal<\/p>\n

She cited the Land Use Act and the Urban and Regional Planning Act, which, according to her, prescribe fines or surcharges\u2014not arbitrary property takeovers\u2014as penalties for default.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo Nigerian\u2019s property can be lawfully seized or sealed solely due to ground rent default,\u201d she said, calling the FCT Administration\u2019s actions \u201cindiscriminate\u201d and \u201cinsensitive\u201d to current economic realities.<\/p>\n

Senator Ireti Kingibe further cautioned that the abrupt enforcement measures risk undermining public confidence in government institutions and exacerbating the already severe economic strain on residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). She vowed to advocate for legislative safeguards that would ensure future enforcement actions adhere strictly to due process and protect citizens’ rights.<\/p>\n

In a sharp rebuttal, Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to the FCT Minister, dismissed Kingibe\u2019s criticism as a misinformed and politically motivated misrepresentation of the law. He asserted that the failure to pay ground rent is a clear violation of the terms under the Certificate of Occupancy, providing lawful grounds for revocation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould Senator Kingibe, had she been the FCT Minister, turn a blind eye while property owners evade legal obligations for over forty years?\u201d Olayinka queried.<\/p>\n

This escalating exchange unfolds even as President Bola Tinubu recently intervened by granting a 14-day grace period for defaulters to clear outstanding payments. While that presidential directive temporarily paused further enforcement actions, the dispute between Senator Kingibe and Minister Wike\u2019s team exposes a growing political rift over governance and policy implementation in the nation’s capital.<\/p>\n

Africa Today News, New York<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A tense exchange erupted on Thursday between the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and Senator Ireti Kingibe over the recent sealing of several Abuja properties due to unpaid ground rent. Senator Kingibe, who represents the FCT in the Senate, condemned the enforcement action as unconstitutional and excessively forceful. In a statement released […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":114957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6928],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nWike, Kingibe Lock Horns Over Ground Rent Enforcement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A tense exchange erupted on Thursday between the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and Senator Ireti Kingibe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/africatodaynewsnewyork.com\/2025\/05\/30\/wike-kingibe-lock-horns-over-ground-rent-enforcement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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