The governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Funsho Doherty has vowed to immediate scrap Alpha Beta, the firm saddled with tax collection and management in Lagos state.
Alpha Beta is a private tax collection and management long rumoured to be co-owned by former Governor of Lagos state and Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
In an exclusive interview with Veonewsng, Doherty wondered why a private firm had taken over the responsibility of government, insisting that it would form part of his first cause of action if elected.
“The private responsibility of any government is to collect its revenue and that is why we have a whole internal revenue service.
“Lagos has been in existence since the 1800s, how did we collect taxes all these while, why did we have to concede that responsibility to a private firm and give a private entity a share of the people’s money when we have a whole government agency set up to carry out that task,” he said.
Doherty also referenced recent allegations against Alpha Beta and the Governor that brought in the company in the 2000s by the pioneer Managing Director of the Company, Dapo Apara.
Who Owns Alpha Beta?
Recall that Apara in a suit filed against Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress leader, Bola Tinubu; and the current Managing Director of the company, Akin Doherty accused the Alpha Beta of money laundering, fraud, tax evasion, and other corrupt practices.
Alpha Beta handles the computation, tracking, and reconciliation of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in Lagos State in return for a commission.
Apara’s counsel, Ebun Adegboruwa, SAN, in the suit said Tinubu controls Alpha Beta, a tax consulting firm that has exclusive rights to monitor and generate revenue on behalf of the Lagos State Government.
The suit also detailed all sums due to the estranged former Managing Director from 2010 till date and what led to them falling apart, including suspicious transfer, the power play at the firm, the fund and assets due to him from the firm inception to date.
Apara, who had in 2018 written a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission accusing Alpha Beta of N100bn tax fraud, asked the court to compel the firm to pay him his entitlements even as he alleged that Tinubu was the one that got him removed from his position for investigating the firm’s finances.
Recently, the parties opted for an Out of Court settlement.
I’ll Revamp Lagos Internal Revenue Service – Doherty
In the chat, Doherty said the Lagos Internal Revenue Service officials will be retrained to ensure effective tax colelction in the country.
He also promised to ensure accountability of funds as mismanagement of funds and corruption remains the major hindrance to the robust development of Lagos.
He took a jibe at the successive administrations in Lagos, claiming that most of their decisions had been self serving.
“if you’re driven by selfish interest and take decisions that are self serving, you may end up not getting results. For instance, you may decide to build a new health centre, whereas what you need to do is equip and improve conditions in the hospital healthcare,” he added.
