River Park Estate: Wike confirms int’l arbitration claims against Nigeria

By Vivian Okejeme

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has confirmed that the estate development dispute between the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) and Ghanaian-owned real estate developer JonahCapital Nigeria Limited, over the development of River Park Estate, Lugbe, Abuja, is now before international arbitration.

JonahCapital Ltd activated the arbitration clause against the FCDA and the Federal Capital Territory Authority (FCTA) pending before the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Paris, France.

The company is challenging the legality of the purported termination of the Development Lease Agreement (DLA) and seeking appropriate reliefs.

The action is following failure of several efforts through official and judicial fora to address the repeated breaches of the DLA for Plot 4, Cadastral Zone E30, Lugbe West, Abuja, including the FCDA’s termination of the pending lease on November 5, 2025, despite it being valid until June 2030.

Among the breaches includes FCDA’s alleged fencing of portions of the disputed property while the arbitral proceedings are ongoing, a development likely to heighten tensions surrounding one of Abuja’s major mass housing projects.

Speaking on the development in a recent media parley, Wike said “The other party has gone to arbitration, we say okay, until you finish from arbitration.”

Further, Wike stated that the FCDA had a contractual relationship with JonahCapital, and not Paulo Homes Limited that the company introduced, maintaining that the DLA executed with JonahCapital had expired and the authority had consequently taken back the land.

The River Park Estate arose from the DLA executed on May 28, 2007 between the FCT Minister and JonahCapital Nigeria Limited under the FCT Mass Housing Scheme, which was registered on June 5, 2007 as No. FC113 at Page 113 in Volume 20MSC, granted JonahCapital development rights over Plot No. 4, File No. MISC 105902, Cadastral Zone E30, Lugbe West, Abuja, comprising approximately 501 hectares, for the development of what has become River Park Estate.

The development was conceived as a large-scale mixed-use estate comprising residential housing, shopping centres, office complexes, healthcare facilities, places of worship and other supporting infrastructure.

According to JonahCapital, while it was implementing the project, several individuals and entities who were neither allottees nor parties to the DLA began asserting ownership claims over portions of the estate, leading to years of litigation, administrative disputes and competing claims.

The Ghanaian-owned company also contends that the FCDA failed to provide primary infrastructure – including roads, electricity and water supply – as required under the DLA, forcing the developer to finance and construct the infrastructure at enormous cost.

The company equally argues that Clause 7.7 of the DLA requires building approval fees to be deferred, whereas the FCDA allegedly demanded upfront payment contrary to the contractual provisions.