Speaking during the exercise, Chijoke Nwankwoeze, director of Lands at the FCTA, explained that the operation marked the commencement of enforcement against 4,794 properties whose land titles were revoked due to non-payment of ground rent.

He further disclosed that the FIRS office, located on Plot 627, Wuse Zone 5, had failed to pay ground rent for 25 years. Similarly, the Access Bank building on Plot No. 2456, Wuse I, Cadastral Zone AO2, owned by Rana Tahir Furniture Nigeria Limited, had outstanding ground rent payments spanning 34 years.

Mukhtar Galadima, director of Development Control, stated that the sealed properties were in furtherance of the FCTA’s plan to reclaim over 4,000 properties. 

He said, “Today is just to comply with what we have said that we are going to take over all the revoked properties, and we are starting with Plot 534, Cadastral Zone AO2 at Wuse Zone 1, owned by Total PLC.”

Last week, the FCTA announced its intention to commence the physical takeover of affected properties, following repeated warnings to defaulters. It was revealed that the total outstanding ground rent owed by property owners had reached over N6.9 billion, leading to the revocations.

Now, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has implemented modern technology to improve the process of vehicle licensing and registration, as well as the management of its transportation sub-sector.

According to the Administration, the introduction of e-licenses and registration is part of its efforts to reform the sector to provide quality services to territory residents.

Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), disclosed this during the Launch of the Online Vehicle and License Registration Portal at the FCDA Conference Hall in Abuja’s Central Business District.

The Minister, who was represented at the event by FCTA Permanent Secretary Olusade Adesola, stated that the e-process of vehicle license and registration is an innovation by the government to improve its ease of doing business, saving the motoring public several hours that would have been lost if the process had been completed manually.

In a recorded video seen by TechEconomy, Bello said Abuja is the world’s fastest-growing city, and the use of technology in public service delivery is unavoidable, and it would greatly reduce incidents of traffic congestion and rowdiness associated with the manual registration of vehicles by officials of the Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS).

His words: “Leveraging technology in this manner is, therefore, unavoidable to improve efficiency within the system, and we intend to deploy similar measures to other service-providing sectors of the FCT Administration”.

The Minister expressed his displeasure with drivers who openly disregard traffic rules and regulations, saying it is disheartening to see some drivers willfully violate traffic laws.

As a result, he charged officials from the DRTS and other security agencies with ensuring total compliance with road regulations by motorists and apprehending traffic light violators as soon as possible.