From Godwin Tsa, Abuja and Tony John, Port Harcourt
The Abuja division of the Federal High Court has barred the Federal Government from making further deductions from the Federation Account to fund its agencies not listed in the 1999 Constitution for direct allocation.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed in a judgment, yesterday, declared as illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional the direct allocations made so far by the Federal Government from the Federation Account to fund the Nigeria Police Trust Fund.
The judgment followed a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/511/2020, filed on behalf of the Rivers State Government, by a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Joseph Daudu (SAN), challenging unlawful deductions from the Federation Account by the Federal Government.
Justice Mohammed held that section 161 and section 162 of the 1999 Constitution were glaringly breached by the Federal Government in making direct allocation to the Police Trust Fund from the Federation Account.
The Judge held that section 162 of the 1999 Constitution is clear and unambiguous to the effect that only the federal, states and local governments shall be allocated funds directly from the Federation Account.
He also held that Section 4 of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Act 2019 relied upon by the Federal Government to justify the deductions from the Federation Account is inconsistent with section 162 of the 1999 Constitution which recognises only the federal, states and local governments.
Justice Mohammed upheld that the suit by Rivers State against the unjust deduction had succeeded and ordered that funds belonging to Rivers State, but used to fund Nigeria Police Trust fund by the Federal Government, be refunded to the state.
The judge, however, declined to extend the same order for a refund to the other 35 states on the grounds that they were not parties to the suit. He ruled that Rivers State as the plaintiff in he matter did not file it on behalf of other states of the federation.
Defendant in the matter were Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Accountant General of the Federation, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission and Minister of Finance.
The AGF had in his preliminary objection asked the Federal High Court to decline jurisdiction in the matter on the grounds that such suit ought to be filed directly at the Supreme Court.
However, the preliminary objection was dismissed by Justice Mohammed on the grounds that it was misplaced, absurd and unmeritorious.
Meanwhile, Governor Nyesom Wike, in his reaction, said the court verdict was a resounding victory for democracy because the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Act, which the Federal Government relied on to deduct funds from the Federation Account, is in contravention of the 1999 Constitution.
“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 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.”
The governor acknowledged that though the National Assembly is 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, Governor Wike said the order will 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, which is wrong. And I am happy that the decision we took, we are not wrong and I thank my legal team.”
