Wike Commends Ruling Against Federal Govt’s Deductions To Fund Police
Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike has described the Federal High Court’s judgement that stopped direct deductions from the Federation Account to fund the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) as victory for democracy.
The Governor, in a statement by his Special Assistant, Media, Kelvin Ebiri, said the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Act, which the Federal Government relied on for the deductions contravened the 1999 Constitution.
He said: “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 was constitutionally empowered to enact laws, they went beyond their powers in enacting the trust fund Act 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 directive would put an end to impunity.
He said: “We are happy that the court has said that they should refund us all the money deducted and luckily the principal parties, Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission, the Accountant General, Attorney General Office they are all involve 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.”
