The office of the Federal Capital Territory Minister has strongly denied allegations that Nyesom Wike allocated over 2,000 hectares of prime Abuja land to one of his children, describing the claims as completely fabricated.
Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to the FCT Minister, issued a categorical rebuttal on Thursday following the circulation of reports by an online publication. He characterized the allegations as “a tissue of lies” and challenged those making the claims to provide concrete evidence.
The disputed report alleged that Wike had allocated 2,082 hectares of land to his son in the prestigious Asokoro and Maitama districts of Abuja. However, Olayinka dismissed this as logistically impossible, questioning where such vast acreage could be found in these already developed high-density areas of the capital.
According to Olayinka’s clarification, the Right of Occupancy document referenced in the controversial report was actually issued to JOAQ Farms and Estate Limited, a legitimate agricultural company registered in Nigeria. He emphasized that this land allocation was made in the Bwari Area Council specifically for farming purposes, not in the upscale districts mentioned in the false report.
The presidential aide maintained that no member of Wike’s family has received any land allocation from the FCT Administration, directly countering the central claim of the publication. He issued a direct challenge to the report’s publishers, demanding they produce any official documentation showing land allocation to any of the Minister’s children.
Olayinka framed the allegations within a broader context of what he described as a sustained campaign to damage Wike’s reputation. He suggested that such false reports represent part of coordinated efforts by individuals whose primary objective is to malign the FCT Minister’s character and performance.
While acknowledging that Wike and his family members have the constitutional right to acquire land anywhere in Nigeria like any other citizen, Olayinka stressed that no such transactions involving official allocations have occurred. He urged the public to disregard the publication entirely, labeling it as another example of misinformation targeting the Minister.
The denial comes amid heightened scrutiny of land allocation processes in the FCT, where prime real estate commands significant value and transparency in distribution remains a sensitive public issue.
