Security Votes: Court Decides On FG, States, February 18

The Federal High Court in Abuja last Wednesday reserved till February 18, 2013, judgment in a suit seeking the withdrawal of security allocations from the Federation Account.

Justice Adamu Bello reserved the date after the parties in the matter adopted their addresses.

 The plaintiff,Chief Udofia Akpan said the deduction of monies from the statutory allocation made from the Federation Accounts by the 36 State Governors under the guise of “Security Votes’’ was against the provisions of the constitution.

The plaintiff, a legal practitioner, argued that the policy of security votes was not recognised either by the 1999 Constitution or any other law for the time being.

He further argued that “there was no provision in the 1999 Constitution or in any other law authorising these deductions made by the first to 37th defendants’’.

Akpan urged the court to declare the deductions as fraudulent, illegal, void and unconstitutional, because it violated Section 205 (d) of the 1999 Constitution.

The plaintiff further urged the court to declare that the office of the Accountant General of the Federation violated Section 39 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007, the ICPC Act of 2003 and the EFCC Act of 2004 by those releases.

He submitted that the two anti-graft bodies should be compelled to commence investigation into the unconstitutional deductions from 1999 to date.

The plaintiff had among others urged the court to determine whether the policy of security votes was recognised either by the 1999 Constitution or any other law for the time being.

The Attorney-General of the Federation, the Accountant- General of the Federation, the budget office, the EFCC, the ICPC, as well as the Minister of the FCT were joined as co-defendants.

 Counsel to the EFCC  and ICPC Mrs Mary Eimonye and  Mr. O.T. Ogunnike respectively led counsel to the other parties in raising objections to the suit.

The defendants said that the plaintiff lacked the authority to bring the action against them.

The two anti-graft bodies urged the court to discountenance the relief to compel them to investigate the release and use of the “security votes’’.

Similarly, the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, prayed the court to delist their names from the suit, adding that the action was “frivolous’’.

Meanwhile, only Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, Kwara, Lagos, Niger and Taraba, had defended the suit.