Alpha Beta Consulting has spoken on the massive allegations its former Managing Director, Oladapo Apara, levelled against former Lagos Governor, Bola Tinubu.
Tinubu is the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Alpha Beta is Lagos State’s revenue consultant.
Apara, in writ of summons filed at a Lagos High Court on October 2, 2020, alleged that Tinubu demanded 70 percent of the shareholding through his nominated proxies.
He alleged that Alpha Beta has been involved in fraud, tax evasion and money laundering.
Apara said the company got over N150 billion as 10 percent commission for “computing, tracking and reconciling” Lagos State’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
He declared that the amount was collected over a period of 10 years.
The claimant said the revenues collection model was his but “hijacked” by Tinubu when he was Lagos Governor.
Apara is seeking to recover “all the sums adjudged to be due” to him with 10 per cent interest.
The defendants are Alpha-Beta Consulting LLP, Tinubu, and the current MD, Akin Doherty.
Doherty served as Commissioner for Finance under Tinubu.
Apara noted from 2010 till date, Alpha Beta has received more than N150 billion as a commission on collections the Lagos government.
“The claimant avers that despite the huge income made by the 1st defendant LLP since 2010 till present, Messrs Tunde Badejo and Akin Doherty, acting under the direction of the 2nd defendant (Tinubu), breached Clause 8 of the Partnership Agreement and denied the claimant his share of the profit from the partnership as provided in the agreement”, the suit read.
On Friday, Doherty in a statement, said allegations show that Apara is bent only on creating headlines to deflect attention from his criminal activities.
He noted that the claimant was on a personal vendetta because he was removed for “fraud and unethical practices”.
Doherty said Apara used his position to siphon company money.
The MD said his predecessor allegedly converted $5 million to pay for cloud-based services that were eventually discovered to be worth less than $300,000.
“Mr. Apara, who was a signatory to all the bank accounts of Alpha Beta from inception until his removal, received all his payments and entitlements until June 2018 when he was removed after his fraudulent misconduct was discovered. In July 2018, further evidence of his fraudulent and unethical practices was uncovered, including the revelation that he converted approximately N6billion belonging to Alpha Beta to his personal use.
“This fraud was reported to the authorities and Mr. Apara was subsequently invited to return to Nigeria from his hiding place in Dubai to render an account. To date, he has refused to do so. Instead, Mr. Apara chose to embark on an aggressive smear campaign seemingly in an effort to blackmail us into ending the investigations into his misconduct.”
Doherty added that Apara does not provide a single piece of evidence of fraud or criminal activity on those he accused.
The MD recalled that since 2018, the claimant filed many suits in Lagos and Abuja on the same matter.
The statement said although Alpha Beta has not been served with the court summons, it was set to present the full picture of Apara’s alleged misconduct, deceit and fraud.
