Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike has debunked rumours that he plans to contest against President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election.
Wike dismissed the rumours during a live media chat on Friday and stated that he harboured no such intention.
He stated that the Tinubu made him a Minister for a reason, adding that he would not give room for anyone to crumble the political structure of the president.
“Tinubu made me the FCT Minister and I won’t allow anybody to crumble our political structure. No!”
“Tinubu made me Minister, people don’t understand, I have character. What will happen in 2027? I stood and I said I’m not going to support injustice. I was threatened that they will do me this and that. They tried many options including using major Generals,” Wike said.
Explaining the introduction of National Identity Number (NIN) and Biometric Verification Number (BVN) to Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) as part of requirements to acquire land in the FCT, the Minister said the new features were for security and revenue generation.
Wike also noted that existing landowners in the capital must get recertification to incorporate these new features.
“There are a lot of discrepancies, a lot of cloning of C-of-Os, so we have come up with an idea that every allottee who seeks and applies for a C-of-O must supply his NIN; this is one of the features we are going to put in the new C-of-O,” he said.
“If a corporate body doesn’t have an NIN and they have a property, they must put their BVN. So many persons have not registered, and this will make them go and re-register,” he emphasized.
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Addressing the issue of existing landlords with C-of-Os, Wike stated that they would only be required to pay a nominal fee for recertification.
“For everyone who has a C-of-O, they will come for a recertification, so that we can incorporate the NIN or BVN,” he said.
“Those who had a C-of-O before don’t need to pay money again; the highest they can pay is N50,000, and corporate bodies will pay N100,000. It helps in terms of security; it also helps to improve our revenue generation,” Wike reiterated.
“There are people who own seven properties, so this will identify them so they can pay taxes,” he stated.
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