N29bn Ground Rents Debt: FCTA To To Impose Caveat On Debtors’ Property

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) NO BI has taken audacious steps to recoup the enormous debt owed to it by property owners in the Federal Capital Territory by putting a caveat on the impacted properties whose cases are already in court.The restriction is to prevent such titleholders from using the property, with the goal of eventually turning it over to the government.The Administration has stated that it will continue to prosecute defaulters in court in order to obtain a court order for the forfeiture of the impacted properties.Therefore, the officially placed caveat will also prevent such properties from being altered, particularly by attempting to sell or transfer ownership, because the matter is being investigated. The implication is that a caveat when placed on any property, whether developed or undeveloped, and even, if ground rent fully cleared, a written application must be submitted, and approval obtained before it can be lifted. The FCT Administration is determined to recover all Ground Rent debts owed it by property owners in Abuja, and all necessary procedure will be followed to achieve this. Since the Administration has commenced prosecution of the defaulting titleholders inspite of several appeals from the FCT Administration, the only thing that can stop the progression of this action is for the affected property owners to clear their outstanding debts. The government is in court to seek for an order to force debtors to clear their debts or forfeit the affected property, since they are recalcitrant in paying the debt, despite several warnings. The FCT Administration has taken these steps to drive home the point that it is desirous of recovering the over N29 billion Ground Rents owed it by property owners. It would be recalled that the FCT Permanent Secretary, Mr. Adesola Olusade recently inaugurated a debt recovery committee with the mandate to recover the outstanding debts owed the FCT Administration with particular interest in ground rents and other sundry fees in the Land Administration as well as other Land related departments. The government last month, announced its preparedness to prosecute about 413 defaulting property owners by the end of August 2022. The government insisted that since all entreaties have failed, it has no other option than to commence the prosecution of the first batch of the defaulting property owners. The Coordinating Committee on the Recovery of Outstanding Ground Rent and Other Related Charges in the FCT under the Chairmanship of the FCT General Counsel/Secretary Legal Services Secretariat, Mohammed Babangida Umar, wishes to assure the public that there will be no sacred cows as the law will surely take its course, because the only language it will understand is for the debtors to clear their outstanding debt.