Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike has hailed the Federal High Court in Abuja for its judgement, last Wednesday, which barred the Federal Government from deducting funds from the Federation Account to fund the Nigeria Police Force and other agencies not listed in the Constitution.
He said the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Act which the Federal Government relied on to deduct funds from the Federation Account was in contravention of the 1999 Constitution.
Wike, who spoke to journalists shortly after returning from Germany where he undertook a tour of the Rivers State Government’s Legacy 600 plane that had been parked in the European country for 10 years, described the judgement by Justice Ahmed Mohammed as a victory for democracy.
The Rivers State Government had filed a suit to stop the Federal Government from deducting the funds for the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Scheme.
According to Wike, it was wrong for the government to have conceived the idea of deducting the funds because funding the police was a responsibility of the Federal Government.
He added that states should be allowed to decide on how and when to support the police, but not to make it an arbitrary deduction.
The governor also thanked his legal team for a job well done, saying that his administration was not afraid of an appeal.
“For me, it is a victory for democracy. And 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 into 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.”
The governor acknowledged that though 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 of Nigeria.
Speaking further on the order of the court that the 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, Allocation 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, which is wrong. I am happy that the decision we took, we are not wrong, and I thank my legal team.”
Earlier, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had declared as unconstitutional the Federal Government’s deduction of funds directly from the Federation Account to fund the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) in line with Section 4(1)(a) and (b) of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (Establishment) Act 2019.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed made the declaration while delivering judgement suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/511/2020 filed by the Rivers State Government against the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Accountant General of the Federation, Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and the Minister of Finance, last Wednesday.
Mohammed asserted that the provisions of Section 4(1)(a) and (b) of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (Establishment) Act 2019, that requires the Federal Government to deduct 0.05per cent of any funds in the Federation Account and 0.005per cent of the net profit of companies operating in the country to fund the police are unconstitutional.
The judge said the provisions of Section 4(1) (a) and (b) in the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Act are inconsistent to the provisions of Section 162(1) and (3) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, which explicitly state that the payment of total revenue collected by the Government of the Federation, including levies and taxes, must be paid into the Federation Account for sharing among the three tiers of government.
Mohammed said the court agreed with Rivers State Government’s contention that, by virtue of Section 162 (3) of the Nigerian Constitution, funds standing to the credit of the Federation Account “can only be distributed among the Federal, State and Local Governments in each state of the federation and not directly to any agency of the Federal Government, including the Nigeria Police Force.”
He said by the provision of Section 162(3) of the Constitution, no other entity, outside the three tiers of government is entitled to partake in the sharing of funds standing to the credit of the Federation Account.
Based on this, he said the provisions of Section 4(1) (a) and (b) in the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Act are at variance with the provision of Section 162(3) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
Mohammed stated that since the police was an agency of the Federal Government, it was the duty of the Federal Government to establish and maintain the Nigeria Police Force, and not the states.
He ordered the Federal Government to refund to the Rivers State Government its share of the funds from the Federation Account that had been illegally deducted since it commenced the deduction of funds based on the provisions of Section 4(1) (a) and (b) in the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Act.
Mohammed also granted reliefs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 as prayed by the plaintiff, and in respect of reliefs 6 and 8, that relate to refund, the judge said they should apply to Rivers State.
The trial judge, meanwhile, declined to grant similar order of refund to the other 35 states on the ground that they were not parties in the suit.
According to him, Rivers State, as the plaintiff in the suit, did not file it on behalf of other states.