THE Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) sealed off the headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Wuse district of Abuja on Monday, May 26.

According to eyewitnesses, FCTA officials arrived at the premises around 2 p.m. and directed the security personnel to contact those responsible for the property.

The move is linked to a broader initiative launched in March by the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, targeting properties with outstanding ground rent obligations.

The PDP headquarters is among 4,794 properties whose land titles were revoked by the FCTA for non-payment of ground rent, some for over four decades.

The revocation list, approved by Wike, includes a number of high-profile institutions and organisations, namely Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), and the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Others affected include Borno and Kaduna State Government lodges, Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company, Nigerian Postal Service, and the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN)

The FCTA had warned that enforcement would proceed regardless of ownership, stressing that the government would act in line with established legal procedures.

“Ownership of the revoked 4,794 properties… had already reverted to the FCTA,” the FCTA stated, adding that “As from Monday, next week, the government will begin to exercise its rights of ownership on the affected landed properties without consideration as to ownership.”

The PDP, one of Nigeria’s main opposition parties,  has yet to issue an official statement on the sealing of its headquarters.

The ICIR reports that Wike is a PDP member who took appointment in President Bola Tinubu’s government, after the president won the 2023 election.

Since he accepted the offer, endorsed by his party, the PDP has been in tatters, swimming in pools of crises that have led to many of its members detecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)

Many stakeholders in the party have been at war with the minister, including Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his successor in Rivers State, where he was governor for eight years before becoming a minister.

Tinubu eventually suspended Fubara for six months after the crisis between him and Wike got to its peak in March.