Gladness Gideon
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has firmly denied reports alleging that he secretly allocated over 2,000 hectares of prime land in Abuja’s Maitama and Asokoro districts to his son.
The denial comes in response to a viral online publication which claimed that Wike used his ministerial position to secure 2,082 hectares of land—purportedly under the guise of agricultural use—via a company linked to his family, JOAQ Farms and Estate Limited. The report cited a Right of Occupancy (R-of-O) allegedly issued in the company’s name as the basis for the claim.
Reacting on behalf of the minister, his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, dismissed the report as baseless and defamatory.
In a statement issued Thursday, Olayinka said: “Not even a single plot of land has been allocated to any of the Minister’s children. The story is another falsehood from the vault of those whose main job is to malign the FCT Minister.”
He further described the report as a product of “quack journalism,” questioning both the credibility of the publication and the feasibility of the land size cited.
“In today’s Asokoro and Maitama, where can the FCT Minister find 2,082 hectares to allocate? Only quack journalists will go to town with such an outlandish story,” Olayinka remarked.
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The Minister’s aide clarified that the referenced R-of-O pertains to land allocated for farming activities in Bwari Area Council, not in the highbrow districts of Maitama or Asokoro.
“For the avoidance of doubt, JOAQ Farms and Estate Limited, a duly registered Nigerian company, received land for agricultural use in Bwari Area Council. What is wrong with a farmer getting land for farming?” he asked.
Olayinka emphasized that while the Minister and his family, like all Nigerians, have the legal right to own land in any part of the country, no such allocation had been made to his children.
He described the publication as a deliberate attempt to smear Wike’s reputation, urging the public to disregard the claims entirely.
“The entire report is false and should be disregarded,” Olayinka concluded.