A Federal High Court in Abuja has granted an order stopping the Federal Government from making any further deductions from the Federation Account to fund the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Scheme or any other agencies not listed in the 1999 constitution.
The court on Wednesday held that the Federal Government has been breaching the law by deducting funds from the Federation accounts to fund agencies not listed in the Constitution.
The judgement was sequel to a lawsuit application suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/511/2020 and 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.
The suit which was filed by Joseph Daudu (SAN) on behalf of the state government, argued that the Federal Government is depriving the state of substantial revenue from the Federation Account, seeking an order to bar the government from deducting unlawful funds.
Following arguments from the Rivers State Government, the presiding judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, in a judgment on Wednesday, held that the provisions of Section 4(1) (a) & (b) of the NPTF Act 2019, requiring the deduction 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.
The judge declared the deductions as illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional on the grounds that Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution is clear and unambiguous to the effect that only the federal, state and local governments shall be allocated funds directly from the Federation Account.
Justice Mohammed while upholding the arguments of Rivers State also ordered that funds belonging to the state but used to fund Nigeria Police Trust Fund by the Federal Government be refunded to the state.
The judge, however, declined to extend a similar order of refund to the 35 remaining states on the grounds that they were not parties in the suit and that Rivers State as the plaintiff in the matter did not file it on behalf of others.
