Index to Nigerian Newspapers

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) has proposed to the National Assembly to confer power of control of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) to the National Judicial Council (NJC). The CCT and CCB are creations of the executive, at the federal level, by virtue of Section 153(1)(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. Lawyers have reacted positively to the CJN's proposal. The Constitutional provisions for the CCB/CCT make it answerable only to the Presidency, in conjunction with the Senate. This has generated debate among judges, lawyers and other commentators, as the Presidency and the entire federal executive are also supposed to be subject to the control of the CCB. The NJC was established under Section 153 of the 1999 Constitution to appoint, promote and discipline judicial officers, but the chairman and members of the CCT were not listed as those the NJC could exercise disciplinary control on.

Justice Mohammed stated that since the police is an agency of the Federal Government, it is the duty of the Federal Government to establish and maintain the Nigeria Police Force and not the States.

He ordered the Federal Government to refund to the Rivers State Government its share of the funds from the Federation Account that have been illegally deducted since it commenced the deduction of funds based on provisions of Section 4(1) (a) and (b) of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Act.

Justice Mohammed granted reliefs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 as prayed by the plaintiff, and in respect of reliefs 6 and 8 that relate to refund, the judge said they should apply to Rivers State.

The trial judge, meanwhile, declined to grant similar order of refund to the other 35 States on the ground that they were not parties in the suit. According to him, Rivers State as the plaintiff in the suit, did not file it on behalf of other States.

Meanwhile, Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike in his reaction, said the court verdict is a resounding victory for democracy because the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Act, which the Federal Government relied on to deduct the funds from the Federation Account is in contravention of the 1999 Constitution.

“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,” he enthused.

The governor acknowledged that though the National Assembly is constitutionally empowered to enact laws, in enacting the Police Trust Fund Act, they went beyond their powers 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, Governor Wike said the order would put an end to impunity.

“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 involved 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 in the morning and just decide to do one or two things, which is wrong. And I am happy for the decision we took, which has proved us right and I thank my legal team as well,” he declared.