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The Committee for the Defence Of Human Rights (CDHR) Lagos chapter, has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over alleged tax evasion levelled against Alpha-Beta Consulting LLP, a consultant to Lagos State government on revenue collections.
The petition followed the whistleblowing account of Segun Oluwasanmi, a former employee of Alpha-Beta Consulting limited. Oluwasanmi was on the company’s payroll between September 2018 and January 7, 2025.
In the petition dated December 9, the civil society organisation (CSO) stated that Oluwasanmi had alleged that Alpha-Beta “under-deducted tax” from staff’s salaries and “under-remitted tax” to the government within the period he was at the company. He further alleged that the company divided workers’ salaries into two halves, with the lesser half “under-taxed and under-remitted”.
The petition: “Alphabeta Consulting LLP under the leadership of Otunba Akinsanya Doherty under-deducted tax from staff (including me) and under-remitted tax to the government throughout my stay between September 2018 and January 7, 2025.
“That salaries were divided into 2 parts with only one part being taxed (and even under-taxed) and under-remitted, instead of paying staff commensurate salaries (and promoting the deserving staff who had not been promoted between 5-21 years) while the staff salaries can then be adequately taxed in line with regulatory requirements.
According to the ex-staff member, “The salaries have always been fragmented into 2 parts with the lesser part being taxed.” He claimed that an email dated April 30, 2024, from the human resource department of Alpha-Beta confirmed that the Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) reprinted the “under-remittance of tax”.
Oluwasanmi alleged that the firm promised LIRS that the “under-remittance of tax” would be regularised. “That this was however not fully done as the salaries remained fragmented into 2 parts with the second part remaining un-taxed,
“That instead of complying fully/100%, Alphabeta Consulting LLP consolidated the salaries (hitherto paid in two (2) fragments) into one payroll coined the second which is the larger part as ‘reimbursement’ into the payroll to evade tax and deceive the government when no such word/payment was defined in the employment letter.
“That sometime around the second quarter of 2019, in a meeting held in room 207 at Water House, Ijora office, I raised concerns regarding the need to remit the adequate tax amount, reflect all/appropriate payment in the payroll with corresponding tax amount instead of reflecting a fragment and the need to pay the staff salaries commensurate with what the competitors pay their staff.
“That my concerns/suggestion above was ignored, after which witch-hunting started against me; which eventually led to my abrupt exit on January 7, 2025.”
In the petition, CDHR asked the anti-graft agencies to probe the alleged tax evasion and prosecute the management of Alpha-Beta Consulting.
The petition was filed by Wale Ojo, Lagos state chairman of CDHR. It was submitted separately to the Acting Zonal Director, EFCC Lagos Directorate 1, and the South-West Commissioner of ICPC.
