A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, has said he would sue the Federal Government, the National Assembly (NASS), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) over the controversial Cybersecurity Act that was recently passed by the Senate.
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He stated that he would proceed with the action notwithstanding the news that President Bola Tinubu, has suspended the fund, as according to him, it is only NASS that can lawfully amend or repeal the Act and not President Tinubu who, he said, means well.
He also stated in an interview with Newsmen on Sunday that he would contest that the funding scheme in the Cybersecurity Act is unconstitutional.
He explained that he would be challenging the constitutionality of the Act on the basis that the National Assembly cannot make a law for revenue collection contrary to what the Constitution says.
He further said he has been instructed by financial sector clients to lodge a claim to challenge the cybersecurity fund on grounds that the mechanism of the fund is in violation of section 162 of the Constitution which provides that all public revenue must first be lodged in the federation account and then appropriated by NASS.
According to him, the cybersecurity fund enacted by the Cybersecurity Act prescribes disbursement of public revenue direct to the NSA and that this contravened section 162 of the Constitution.
He claimed that there is a bypass of monies due to the federation by a plethora of laws enacted by the NASS and the continued passage of such laws has posed an existential threat to the sovereign status of Nigeria to survive as a nation .
He also said that he will join the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) as representing the federation of Nigeria.
According to him, this case is a landmark claim that may redefine monies that accrue to the Federation Account
Agbakoba also said: “I am using this case to actually promote the financial purse of the federal government, because the financial purse of the federal government Is leaking badly where Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are taking monies that ought to be in the Federation Act and appropriate them. If the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd), for instance, does not pay anything to the Federation Account, what the NNPC tells the FG is that “we have collected so so much.
“This is what we need to run and this is what we put in the Federation Account.” This is completely unconstitutional. They have been doing it, many states are complaining.
“But it is a shame on the governors who complained and did not go to court. Oh! once they went to court, but it was settled but in my case, I am not going to settle anything.
“I want the court, from the High Court to the Supreme Court to decide the scheme of the financial arrangement of the federal government because rather than keep imposing taxes, raising this tax and that tax, the FG should do well to collect its monies.
Rather than saying we are running a deficit, my aim through this case is to assist the FG to generate its revenue so that it will not have any deficit, it can build roads, hospitals, schools, and do the things that any responsible government does. That is my aim.”
The human right activist however, said that cyber security generally is a good thing and that Iit is something that internationally is being promoted.
According to him, what has suddenly made cyber security a topical issue is this issue of a fund that will be paid to the National Security Adviser.
He opined that is what is causing the problem.
Agbakoba said: “What this question raises is where are the people who are directly impacted by laws made by the National assembly because there is a process of making laws. And one of them is called the public lobby.
“The banks are badly hit and I am going to court to challenge the constitutionality of the Act on the basis that the National Assembly cannot make a law for revenue collection contrary to what the Constitution says.so we need to test it.
“My proposition to the court will be that the government is unable to fund its programmes and has been behind by deficit budgeting for the last 20 years. Whereas, if the government were to stop the leakages that the MDAs are making, the government will have money to discharge its functions well.
“NNPC does not pay anything to the federation account pursuant to Section 162 of the Constitution, the Cyber Crime Act says that money should be paid direct to the NSA.
“The NDDC Act says that oil companies should pay 3 per cent of their total profit to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), TETFund, the Education Trust Fund and you can name it.
“If these monies are captured in the federation account, I think there will be enough money for the government to do its business and I think it is such a fundamental case that I have decided that the time has come to stop this nonsense of anyone in government thinking that they can by-pass the Accountant General of the Federation who is the Chief Financial Officer and collect money.
“So I am happy that this has happened. I have been campaigning for this thing for a long time, and nobody listened. So the question will be: can the National assembly pass a law that gives money directly to the NSA to the detriment of me because if I do a transaction, I get penalized by a levy. Is that constitutional? It is a question that I will pose to the court.”
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