The Network of Abuja Left Groups has called for a statewide protest in the Federal Capital Territory over the continued land grabbing and the outrageous increase in house rent by FCT Minister Nyesom Wike.

This followed Peoples Gazette’s exclusive reports that Mr Wike allocated lucrative lands totalling 3,822 hectares valued at $6.45 billion across the FCT to his two sons, Jordan and Joaquin. 

In a statement dated July 1, 2025, the groups described Mr Wike’s land grabbing as unconscionable theft, slamming the minister for cornering funds that could have addressed the housing deficit in the country’s capital.

“The Wike family now controls at least 3,822 hectares of FCT land — a staggering $6.45 billion in public assets usurped for private gain,” the statement said.

It added, “For context, the whole of FCT Abuja stands on 731,500 hectares. The 3,822 hectares of land in question would represent about 0.52% of the entire FCT.

“That’s one out of every 200 hectares in the whole of the Federal Capital Territory, granted to a single person. There is no other way to describe this than to call it a massive land grab. If we don’t call that theft, then we can only call it a money heist.”

The groups further condemned Mr Wike’s corrupt self-serving dealings at a time FCT schools and other agencies are on strike, accusing the minister and his cronies of littering the capital city with billboards.

“This brazen self‑dealing comes as thousands of FCT workers, including teachers, health staff, environmental officers and local government workers, remain unpaid and on strike.

“While Wike builds private road networks and cosmetic ‘flyovers’ through his sons’ newly acquired land to inflate its value, public schools crumble and clinics close.

“This is the ideology behind the self-aggrandising ‘Mr. Project’ Billboards that Wike and his cronies have used to litter the city of Abuja,” the statement explained.

The groups criticised Mr Wike’s spokesperson and cronies for describing the land allocations as a coincidence, urging striking civil servants in Abuja to join the strike.

It added, “It is on the basis that we call on the people of Abuja to join striking teachers, local government workers, health workers, environmental workers, communities facing demolitions and communities suffering exploitative rents and poor standard of housing in protests against a policy of greed that has been behind all of our woes in Abuja.”

While demanding compensation for striking FCT civil servants and a full-scale probe into land allocations in the FCT under Mr Wike, the groups called for the immediate revocation of lands and certificates of occupancy issued to the minister’s family, as well as his immediate suspension by President Bola Tinubu.