How FCTA uncovered 2,071 fake land titles

Following investigations by the ministerial committee on Falsification/Forgery of Land Titles, AGIS on Oct. 27, 2014 published disclaimer for 2,071 land titles in five area councils. On the list were names of prominent top politicians, businessmen, churches and private firms. It started with the process called recertification. Recertification is the process of certification and capturing […]

Following investigations by the ministerial committee on Falsification/Forgery of Land Titles, AGIS on Oct. 27, 2014 published disclaimer for 2,071 land titles in five area councils. On the list were names of prominent top politicians, businessmen, churches and private firms.
It started with the process called recertification. Recertification is the process of certification and capturing genuine land data. When the Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS) was established, FCTA directed all land title holders to come forward with their papers for verification. In the process of doing this, it was found that many certificates were not genuine. Land authorities therefore withdrew the allocations.
The disclaimer by FCTA on Oct. 27,2014 declared the purported Rights/Certificates of Occupancy void and therefore of no propriety value.
Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) had the highest number of 747 fake titles. Kuje Area Council follows with 630 cases; Bwari Area Council 245; Gwagwalada Area Council 439; and Kwali with the least cases of 10. FCTA said this is necessary so as to sanitize area council layouts and rid them of fake allocations.
An interdepartmental ministerial technical committee on the harmonization of operations of Accelerated Area Councils and Sectional Title Reissuance Scheme (AACSTRIS) was set up to remove all bottlenecks that have stalled the processing of Certificates of Occupancy (C of Os) in the area councils.
It could be recalled that since it commenced the process of recertifying area council land titles, AACSTRIS has had a running battle with the prevalence of fake layouts in the area councils traceable to the abuse of layout mapping processes in the various area councils.  
Chaired by the Executive Secretary, Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) Engr. Adamu Ismaila, the committee includes such other departments as the Urban and Regional Planning, Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS) Land Administration, Survey and Mapping, Mass Housing, Development Control as well as the zonal land managers of the six area councils. Among them is the MD/CEO of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) Engr. David Kpue.  
AGIS Customer Service Head, Mr Cosmas Uzodinma said the committee which was set up by the FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed has been part of the comprehensive efforts to bring sanity to the land administration processes in FCT. It also has the mandate to harmonize the operations of AACSTRIS, Mass Housing and FHA.     
Fake layouts were defined by the committee as layouts without ministerial approval, overlapping designs and double allocations. These have constituted trouble in the area council allocations over the years. Over the years, effort to put an end to land racketeering has not yielded the expected result as daily, unsuspecting land buyers are conned. Fraud is prevalent because many buyers are ignorant of the process of land acquisition. They often rely on touts. These touts who daily hover around AGIS’ office in Area 11, Abuja do not work alone, they work in cahoots with government agents.
The committee so far has identified five area councils badly affected by this phenomenon: AMAC, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Kwali. Abaji is said to have no cases of fake layouts probably because of its distance from the centre of the territory.  
FCTA therefore warned that doing anything with the mentioned titles is risky while residents are told to beware of touts and racketeers parading such fake area council titles and defrauding the public.
“The public is hereby informed that the only approving authority for all land allocations is the Honourable Minister of the FCT. The area councils and their agents are not by law or delegation authorised to or empowered to make any allocations whatsoever on behalf of the minister,” AGIS warned.