The Lagos chapter of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over alleged tax evasion by Alpha-Beta Consulting Limited.
The petition is based on a whistleblowing account by Segun Oluwasanmi, a former employee of the firm, who said he was on Alpha-Beta’s payroll between September 2018 and January 7, 2025.
In the petition dated December 9, CDHR quoted Oluwasanmi as alleging that Alpha-Beta “under-deducted tax” from staff salaries and “under-remitted tax” to the government throughout his period of employment.
Oluwasanmi alleged that the company split workers’ salaries into two parts, with the smaller portion “under-taxed and under-remitted”.
“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,” the petition reads.
“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.
“That the salaries has always been fragmented into 2 parts with the lesser part being taxed.”
The former staff member further claimed that an email dated April 30, 2024, from Alpha-Beta’s human resources department confirmed that the Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) had queried the firm over “under-remittance of tax”.
According to Oluwasanmi, the company allegedly 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,” he alleged.
He further claimed that instead of fully complying, the firm allegedly consolidated salaries previously paid in two parts and described the larger portion as “reimbursement” to evade tax.
“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,” the petition states.
Oluwasanmi also alleged that he raised concerns about proper tax remittance during a meeting in the second quarter of 2019 but was ignored.
“That sometimes 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… 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 urged the anti-graft agencies to investigate the allegations and prosecute the management of Alpha-Beta Consulting if found culpable.
The petition was filed by Wale Ojo, Lagos State chairman of CDHR, and submitted separately to the acting zonal director of EFCC Lagos Directorate 1 and the South-West commissioner of ICPC. Acknowledged copies of the petition were sighted.
Alpha-Beta Consulting provides revenue consultancy services to the Lagos State Government.