N29bn Ground Rents Debt: FCTA Drags Defaulters to Court

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), has commenced prosecution of defaulting title holders, who are yet to pay their ground rents debt.

Already, the government has filed court cases against some of the property owners over their failure to pay the prescribed land charges.

The government is seeking 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 appeals.

The administration has taken this step to drive home the point that it is desirous of recovering the over N29 billion ground rents owed it by property owners.

Last month, it announced the preparedness to prosecute about 413 defaulting property owners by end of the August 2022, being the first set.

The legal fireworks has commenced and it may lead to the forfeiture of the affected property to the government in line with relevant laws.

Some of the debtors have failed to pay their outstanding Ground Rents, in spite of several appeals and warnings, thereby, jeopardising government’s effort at providing critical services to the residents.

The FCTA said 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.

It would also 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.