A federal high court in Abuja has declared that the direct deduction of funds from the federation account to fund the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is illegal.
In a judgment delivered on Wednesday, Ahmed Mohammed, the presiding judge, held that the provisions of section 4(1)(a) (b) of the Police Trust Fund Act 2019, requiring the deduction of 0.05 percent 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 section 162(1) (3) of the constitution, which states that the payment of total revenue collected by the government of the federation, including levies and taxes, into the federation account is for sharing among the three tiers of government.
Consequently, the judge ordered the federal government to refund all monies deducted from the federation account belonging to Rivers state government.
