On Monday, Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesm Wike, announced the revocation of 4,794 land titles, over non-payment of Ground Rent. Among the revoked lands is the National secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In a revocation notice dated March 13, 2025, Director, Land Administration, FCT, Chijioke Nwankwoeze, said the opposition party failed to pay the annual ground rents due on the property for twenty (20) years, from January 1, 2006, to January 1, 2025, despite many publications in several national dailies and electronic media to pay up every outstanding bill and ground rent on its property.
Nwankoweze, who signed the letter on Wike’s behalf said the PDP headquarters had become the property of FCDA.
“I am to further inform you that the subject property (Plot No. 243 Central Area, Cadastral Zone A00, Abuja) has thus reverted to the Federal Capital Territory Administration and the Administration will take immediate possession thereof.”
National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Debo Ologunagba, had described the revocation order as “a drive towards totalitarianism and attempt to stifle opposition”.
Ologunagba who disclosed that the order also extended to the temporary and permanent offices of the party, said the move is a threat to democracy.
On his party, Ambasador Illiya Damagum, Acting National Chairman of the PDP, summoned an emergency meeting. It was in the middle of that meeting that President Bola Tinubu declared a State of Emergency in PDP-governed Rivers over the political crisis in the state.
The president said he could not sit and watch militants who had threatened to blow up pipelines if Fubara were impeached to carry out such threats. He said he tried to intervene in the crisis but the warring parties refused to allow peace reign.
The president appointed a retired Naval Chief to preside over the affairs of the state for the six months when Fubara and the lawmakers would be out of office.
However, Presidential Candidate of the PDP in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, has described the president’s action as an assault on democracy.
In a statement he personally signed on Tuesday night, Atiku said Tinubu was an interested party in Rivers crisis.
“Anyone paying attention to the unfolding crisis knows that Bola Tinubu has been a vested partisan actor in the political turmoil engulfing Rivers. His blatant refusal — or calculated negligence — in preventing this escalation is nothing short of disgraceful.
“Beyond the political scheming in Rivers, the brazen security breaches that led to the condemnable destruction of national infrastructure in the state land squarely on the President’s desk. Tinubu cannot evade responsibility for the chaos his administration has either enabled or failed to prevent.
“It is an unforgivable failure that under Tinubu’s watch, the Niger Delta has been thrown back into an era of violent unrest and instability — undoing the hard-won peace secured by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. Years of progress have been recklessly erased in pursuit of selfish political calculations.
“If federal infrastructure in Rivers has been compromised, the President bears full responsibility. Punishing the people of Rivers State just to serve the political gamesmanship between the governor and Tinubu’s enablers in the federal government is nothing less than an assault on democracy and must be condemned in the strongest terms.”
