A federal high court in Abuja has declared that the direct
deduction of funds from the federation account to fund the Nigeria Police Force
(NPF) is illegal.
In a judgment delivered on Wednesday, Ahmed Mohammed, the
presiding judge, held that the provisions of section 4(1)(a) (b) of the Police
Trust Fund Act 2019, requiring the deduction of 0.05 percent of any funds in
the federation account and 0.005 percent of the net profit of companies
operating in Nigeria to fund the police are unconstitutional.
Mohammed said the provisions are contrary to the provisions
of section 162(1) (3) of the constitution, which states that the payment of
total revenue collected by the government of the federation, including levies
and taxes, into the federation account is for sharing among the three tiers of
government.
Consequently, the judge ordered the federal government to refund all money deducted from the federation account belonging to Rivers state government.
Rivers state, through its attorney-general, had on May 20,
2020, filed a suit against the federal government’s decision to fund the NPF
from the federation account.
The attorney-general of the federation (AGF),
accountant-general of the federation, auditor-general of the federation and the
minister of finance were joined as defendants in the suit.
Rivers state contended that it was not the responsibility of
the state governments but that of the federal government to fund the police.
It prayed the court to declare the section of the law
“permitting the direct deduction of any sum or percentage of revenue accruing
to the federation account or which ought to have been paid into the federation
account for the purpose of providing funds for the Nigeria Police Trust Fund”
as “unconstitutional, null and void”.
It also urged the court to order a refund of the money
deducted from the federation account and paid into the NPTF since when it was
informed in April 2020 Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting.
The court ruled in favour of the state.
However, the judge stated that Rivers state will be the only
beneficiary from the refund of the deduction and not the remaining 35 states.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com