Rivers State floors FG on Nigeria Police funding
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ruled that Section 4(1)(a) of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (Establishment) Act 2019, is ultra vires Section 162(1) and (3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
This judgment has succeeded in truncating federal government’s desperate search for extra source of funding for the Nigeria Police.
Section 4(1)(a) Nigeria Police Trust Fund (Establishment) Act 2019 had empowered the federal government to deduct 0.05 per cent of any funds in the Federation Account and 0.05 per cent of the net profit of companies operating in the country to fund the police.
On its part, section 162(1) of the 1999 constitution provides that “the Federation shall maintain a special account to be called “the Federation Account” into which shall be paid all revenues collected by the Government of the Federation….” Sub-section 3, provides that: “Any amount standing to the credit of the Federation Account shall be distributed among the Federal and State Governments and the Local Government Councils in each state on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly.”
The Federal High Court, per Justice Ahmed Mohammed, held that funds standing to the credit of the Federation “can only be distributed among the federal, state and local governments in each state of federation and not directly to any agency of the Federal Government, including the Nigeria Police Force.”
The Rivers State government brought the suit against the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Accountant-General of the Federation, the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and the Minister of Finance.
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