A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory has ordered all parties to maintain the status quo over a prime piece of land in Abuja’s upscale Maitama district, pausing a developing dispute that now involves the Governor of Adamawa State. The court’s interim order centres on Plot 3619, Cadastral Zone A06, Maitama, and restrains any action on the property until pending applications are heard.
The suit, CV/4154/25, was instituted by the allottee, Maryam Ahmed, who is suing through her lawful attorney, EMI Systems Ltd. The defendants are the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and the Federal Capital Development Authority. The claimant alleges an “unlawful and clandestine revocation and reallocation” of her land title without due process.
At a proceeding on December 2, 2025, the claimant was represented by a team of Senior Advocates of Nigeria led by Goddy Uche, SAN. The defendants were represented by Kehinde Ogunwumiju, SAN. A significant development was the appearance of counsel, Simeon Eigege, for Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, who filed a motion to be joined as a party to the suit. The defendants had identified Governor Fintiri as the alleged beneficiary of the plot’s reallocation.
Following arguments, all parties undertook before the court to preserve the res (the subject matter) and maintain the status quo. The court, presiding in Abuja, subsequently adjourned the case to January 21, 2026, for the hearing of the joinder application and a motion for interlocutory injunction.
In her substantive claims, Maryam Ahmed asserts that she lawfully obtained a Certificate of Occupancy for the plot and secured building plan approval from the FCDA. She stated that construction equipment had been mobilised to the site. She contends that she was never served any statutory notice of revocation and only discovered the alleged revocation through court documents filed by the defendants. According to her pleadings, the FCT Minister proceeded to issue a fresh Certificate of Occupancy to Governor Fintiri without first lawfully revoking her own, an act she describes as a fundamental breach of land administration laws and her right to fair hearing.
The claimant is seeking several declarations from the court, including that the purported revocation and reallocation were unlawful, null, and void. She prays the court to set aside these actions, nullify any new Certificate of Occupancy, and issue a mandatory injunction compelling the FCT authorities to recognise her subsisting title. Additionally, she is claiming ₦100 million in general damages and ₦200 million as litigation costs.
In a counter-affidavit opposing the injunction, the FCT Minister and the FCDA argued that the motion lacked urgency. They maintained that all lands in the FCT are vested in the Minister and that a failure to develop allocated land within two years makes it liable to revocation. However, legal experts note that such powers are not absolute; the law requires strict adherence to procedure, including the service of a valid notice of revocation, which forms the crux of the claimant’s case.
This dispute highlights recurring tensions in Abuja’s land administration, where valuable plots in districts like Maitama are often subject to competing claims and allegations of high-level interference.
For now, Plot 3619 in Maitama remains under a judicial hold, its future contingent on the court’s determination of whether due process was followed or sidelined in the reallocation of a prime asset in the nation’s capital.
