The levy of FG on the account of the federation to finance the police is illegal

A Federal High Court in Abuja has ruled that the direct deduction of funds from the federation account to fund the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) is illegal.

In a judgment delivered on Wednesday, Ahmed Mohammed, the presiding judge, found that the provisions of section 4(1)(a)(b) of the Police Trust Fund Act 2019, requiring the deduction of 0.05% of any funds in the federation account and 0.005 percent of the net profit of companies operating in Nigeria to fund the police are unconstitutional.

Mohammed said the provisions are contrary to the provisions of Article 162 (1) (3) of the constitution, which states that the payment of the total revenue collected by the government of the federation, including levies and taxes, on the federation account is for sharing. between the three levels of government.

Therefore, the judge ordered the federal government to refund all the money deducted from the federation account belonging to the Rivers State government.

State of the riversthrough its attorney general, had, on May 20, 2020, filed a complaint against the decision of the federal government to fund the FPN from the federation account.

The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), the Accountant General of the Federation, the Auditor General of the Federation and the Minister of Finance have been joined as defendants in the lawsuit.

Rivers State argued that it was not the responsibility of state governments but of the federal government to fund the police.

He requested the court to declare the section of the law “permitting the direct deduction of any sum or percentage of income accruing to the account of the federation or which should have been paid into the account of the federation for the purpose of providing funds to the Nigeria Police Trust Fund” as “unconstitutional, null and void”.

He also urged the court to order the reimbursement of the money deducted from the federation account and paid to the NPTF since he was informed during the meeting of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) d April 2020.

The court ruled in favor of the state.

However, the judge said Rivers State would be the sole beneficiary of the deduction refund and not the remaining 35 states.