FCT Minister Nyesom Wike said on Wednesday that the revocation of the Jabi Lake recreation land would stand, dismissing a public plea from Rev. Serah Omaku of Family Worship Centre, Abuja, after the pastor knelt and asked him not to concession the site.
Wike said the administration was enforcing the law, not responding to emotion. He said the land had been handed to one company 15 or 16 years ago without any development, and that the area later degenerated into shanties and makeshift settlements despite claims it would become an entertainment centre.
The minister said the allocation had already been revoked and would be reassigned to people ready to develop it under clear conditions. He added that if the new holder failed to develop the land within the set time, the government would take it back again. Wike also said several plots around the lake had remained undeveloped for over a decade, and that the FCT Administration had begun revoking such allocations across Abuja.
Jabi Lake is widely described as a popular recreation park in the capital, and the dispute has drawn attention because the pastor’s appeal went viral before Wike responded. That public pressure did not change his position. “You cannot allocate land and leave it for that long with nothing to show,” he said, adding that he could not be moved by a kneeling appeal and asking who owned Jabi Lake if not the government.
The friction at the heart of the case is not just about one lake. Wike said the administration is reclaiming land from people who failed to use it properly or converted it to unauthorized uses, and he cited a cleric who had allegedly built a church on land meant for recreation. He said the cleric would be given time to move out, but not allowed to remain there. For residents watching the row around Jabi, the answer is now plain: the recreation land will not stay in the hands of whoever failed to develop it first.
