ASUU accuses Wike of allocating University of Abuja land despite court order
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The University of Abuja branch of ASUU says the FCT minister's September allocation of campus land to companies and individuals breached a court order, and warns it can no longer guarantee industrial harmony.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Abuja chapter, has accused the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, of unlawfully allocating university land to private companies and individuals.
Speaking at a press conference at the university on Tuesday, ASUU-UniAbuja chairperson Sylvanus Ugoh, a professor, said the union can no longer guarantee industrial harmony on campus unless the minister reverses the allocations. "ASUU Uniabuja will no longer guarantee industrial harmony if the FCT Minister fails to reverse the unlawful taking away of University of Abuja land and allocating it to his friends and cronies," the union said in a statement issued after the press conference.
The union said Wike's allocation of land to certain companies and individuals on 26 September violated an order of the Maitama High Court directing all parties to maintain the status quo, and accused him of breaching an FCT High Court judgment restraining the minister from entering or encroaching on the university's land. It called on President Bola Tinubu to intervene and said it would use all legal means to resist any attempt to take the land.
The dispute dates back to June 2025, when Wike announced at the commissioning of an access road to the EFCC Institute in Giri that he was cutting the university's land from 11,000 hectares to 4,000 hectares and accused the institution of land grabbing. He said the university had acquired 11,000 hectares without documents and directed the Director of Lands and other FCT agencies to reallocate the remainder for planned development in the district.
The university pushed back. Its Pro-Chancellor, Olanrewaju Tejuoso, said the school holds valid documents showing the land was duly allocated, and that the 4,000 hectares left to it are mostly rocky hills. Wike said he was only following a decision by a previous administration and questioned why a university would need 11,000 hectares while the FCT is under pressure to expand because of congestion.