RULAAC seeks amendment of police trust fund law

Following the seeming redundancy of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (NPTF), the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) has called for the review of the act establishing the NPTF.

RULAAC, at a press conference in Lagos, yesterday, said the NPTF, as constituted, could not work.

Executive Director of the Centre, Okechukwu Nwanguma, flanked by Beatrice Ojukwu of Victims Support Fund (VSF) and Nkechi Ochulor of RULAAC, cited the constitution of the fund’s Board of Trustees (BoT) and other individuals saddled with the responsibility of overseeing it as recipe for failure.

According to him, the fund seemed doomed from the beginning, as it took President Muhammadu Buhari one year, after signing the bill into law in 2019, to constitute the BoT. And in constituting it, the President did not consider the federal character principle – he appointed most of the officials from just one part of the country.

He further said that even the sources of funding were not guaranteed, as companies complained of over-taxing when asked to contribute their quota to the fund.

“According to the NPTF Establishment Act, the fund shall comprise 0.5 per cent of the total revenue accruing to the Federation Account, take-off grants, aids, donations and, interestingly, 0.005 per cent of the net profit of companies doing business in Nigeria,” Nwanguma said.

The NPTF, like the Police Service Commission (PSC), is headed by a retired Inspector-General of Police (IGP), which will impede its effectiveness, he asserted, arguing that those retired officers have little or nothing to offer in the management of funds.

While urging the managers of NPTF to emulate the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF), which has been adjudged the best in the country so far, RULAAC made other recommendations to move the fund forward.

“The NPTF should be independent of the police and government bureaucracy. This is one lesson from the LSSTF. The trustees should make all the decisions as in the case of Lagos, as emphasis on the use of security trust fund is speed – to enter into gaps that normal funding cannot address quickly.

“There is need to look into the act establishing the NPTF, identify the barriers to its implementation and amend the act appropriately,” RULAAC stated.

It also noted that the law mandated the NPTF to report to the National Assembly, not the President, and that the members of staff should not be civil servants seconded from different ministries.