A Federal High Court in Abuja yesterday declared as unconstitutional the direct allocations made by the federal government from the federation account to fund the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (NPTF).
Recall that the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) had announced at its April 2020 meeting that the it would start deductions from the federation account to fund the NPTF.
Consequently, the Rivers State government filed a suit on May 20, 2020 challenging the planned deductions and the law on which it was premised.
The Rivers State government, through its counsel, attorney general in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/511/2020, challenged what it described as the unlawful deductions being made from the federation account, jointly owned by the federal, state and local governments, to fund the NPTF.
The suit was filed by Rivers State government against the attorney-general of the federation, accountant-general of the federation, Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and the minister of finance.
It contended that it was not the responsibility of the state governments, but that of the federal government to fund the police.
It therefore 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 about it at the FAAC meeting of April 2020.
Delivering judgement in the case, Justice Ahmed Mohammed said the direct allocation was “illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional,” and barred the federal government from further deductions from the federation account to fund agencies not listed in the 1999 Constitution for direct allocation.
He also held that Section 161 and Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution were glaringly breached by the federal government following the direct allocation from the federation account to the Police Trust Fund.
The court also held that Section 4 of the NPTF Act 2019 relied upon by the federal government to justify the unlawful deductions from the federation account was inconsistent with section 162 of the 1999 Constitution which recognises only the federal, states and local governments.
He specifically stated that Section 4(1)(a) & (b) of the NPTF Act 2019, requiring the deduction of 0.05 per cent of any funds in the federation account and 0.005 per cent of the net profit of companies operating in Nigeria to fund the police are unconstitutional.
Mohammed, while upholding the suit against the deductions, ordered that the fund belonging to Rivers State but used to fund the NPTF by the federal government should be refunded to the state.
The judge, however, declined to extend similar order of refund to the 35 remaining states on the grounds that they were not parties in the suit.
He explained that the plaintiff (Rivers State) did not file it on behalf of others.
The court upheld all of argument of the plaintiff’s counsel, Mr. Joseph Daudu that where the provisions of the 1999 Constitution are clear and unambiguous, they must be given their ordinary meanings.
The court also agreed with Daudu that the federal government was completely wrong in the interpretation given to section 4 of the NPTF Act to the effect that the Nigerian Police was established for the federal government alone and as such the funding is solely on the shoulder of the federal government.
Reacting to the judgement, the governor of Rivers State, Mr. Nyesom Wike noted that the NPTF Act, which the federal government relied on deduct funds from the Federation Account was in contravention of the 1999 Constitution.
“I have always told people, it is not whether you must win or not, but it is a matter of when you see issues that you think are in contravention of our constitution and other laws, there is nothing wrong for you to challenge it, so that the right thing can be done.
“After all, if the money is given back to us, we can still on our own say police, we want to support you with this. But not the federal government arbitrarily deducting our money from the federation account and putting it to Police Trust Fund. I don’t think that, that is right and I thank God that today the court has made a clear pronouncement on it.”
He further said although the national assembly was constitutionally empowered to enact laws, in enacting the Police Trust Fund Act, they went beyond their powers by contravening the provisions of the constitution.
On the order of the court that the Rivers State government should be refunded the money deducted from its share to fund the police, Wike said the order would put an end to impunity.
“We are happy that the court has said that they should refund us all the money deducted and, luckily, the principal parties, Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission, the accountant general, attorney general office, they are all involved in the case.
“It is not about Rivers State, but it is about the impunity; it is about the violation of the constitution, as if anybody can wake up one early morning and just decide to do one or two things. And I am happy that the decision we took, we are not wrong and I thank my legal team,” he added.
