Ground rent: Stop advertising myopic attitude against Wike – Olayinka to Senator Kingibe

The Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Ireti Kingibe, has been cautioned to stop advertising her myopic attitude against the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.

Wike’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, made the remark while criticizing Kingibe over her ignorance of the Land Use Act of the FCT, which allows for the payment of ground rent in the capital city.

On Monday, the FCT Authority, FCTA, had commenced sealing of the 4,794 land titles revoked over the inability of their owners to pay ground rent.

Several organizations, including the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, National Secretariat, were sealed off by officials of the FCTA.

Following the outcry, President Bola Tinubu intervened, and Wike issued a 14-day grace period for defaulters to pay up.

Reacting, Kingibe said it was illegal for properties to be seized, revoked, or sealed solely on account of failure to pay ground rent.

Rubbishing her stance, Olayinka charged the FCT lawmaker to purge herself of hatred against Wike.

In a statement he issued, Olayinka said Kingibe should stop seeing issues from the angle of “I hate Wike.”

Describing the senator’s comment on the enforcement of payment of ground rent as ridiculously illogical, the FCT Minister’s spokesperson said land allocation is not unconditional; there are conditions that must be met, and one of them is annual payment of ground rent.

Olayinka said Kingibe’s recent diatribe against Wike was a further advertisement of her ignorance of the Land Use Act and her penchant for seeking cheap political gains on every issue.

He said: “It is ridiculously embarrassing that a serving senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, whose duty is to make laws, is ignorant of the provisions of Section 28, Subsections (a) and (b) of the Land Use Act.

“For the education of Senator Kingibe, Section 28, Subsections (a) and (b) of the Land Use Act provides that ‘The Government may revoke a Statutory Right of Occupancy on the ground of; (a) a breach of any of the provisions which a certificate of occupancy is by Section 10 deemed to contain; and (b) a breach of any term contained in the Certificate of Occupancy.’

“Now, is annual payment of ground rent not part of the terms contained in the Certificate of Occupancy? Or did Senator Kingibe just choose to advertise her myopic attitude to anything Wike?”

“Now, if land allottees refused to pay ground rent for 10 to 43 years, would Senator Ireti Kingibe just look away if she were the FCT Minister?”