The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has approved the revocation of 485 land documents in Abuja after they failed official verification checks.
The affected titles were cancelled following a comprehensive audit carried out by the Department of Land Administration in conjunction with the Abuja Geographic Information Systems.
Officials disclosed that many of the documents did not meet authenticity standards, with several confirmed to be forged.
In a public notice issued on Monday by the Federal Capital Territory Administration and tagged Batch I, the authorities announced that the invalid applications had been expunged from the regularisation database.
The notice was directed particularly at applicants who had submitted Area Council land documents for validation.
It stated that the minister had sanctioned the cancellation of applications that failed mandatory genuineness tests and were found to be fake.
The revoked documents cut across multiple Area Councils and layouts within the FCT.
In the Bwari Area Council, the affected locations include Ushafa Village Expansion Scheme, Ushafa Extension and Dawaki Extension 1.
Within the Abuja Municipal Area Council, impacted districts comprise Kurudu-Jikwoyi Relocation, Kurudu Commercial, Karu Village Extension, Nyanya Phase IV Extension, Jikwoyi Residential, Sabon Lugbe and Lugbe I Extension.
Kuchiyako One Layout in Kuje Area Council was also listed among the areas affected by the exercise.
Among those whose documents were cancelled are the Redeemed Christian Church of God and the Ministry of Justice Staff Multi-purpose Cooperative Society, among others.
Under Nigerian law, all land in the FCT is vested in the Federal Government, with Certificates of Occupancy and other title documents required to be processed through the office of the FCT Minister and formalised by AGIS.
The development forms part of ongoing land administration reforms by the FCTA aimed at tackling persistent challenges such as forged documents, multiple allocations and irregular grants allegedly issued by some Area Councils.
The cancellations are part of a broader regularisation drive that has been underway for several months.
Last year, the FCTA disclosed that only 8,287 out of 261,914 Area Council land documents submitted between 2006 and 2023 had been screened — representing just 3.2 per cent of total submissions — leaving over 253,000 applications pending.
Officials of the Federal Capital Development Authority had admitted that the screening process had progressed slowly, with about 96.8 per cent of the submissions still awaiting clearance.