For the second day running, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission continue the grilling of former chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr. Babatunde Fowler, over alleged fraud.
1stnewsonline.com learnt that Fowler, whose interrogation ran till late Monday night, returned to the anti-graft agency’s Lagos zonal office on Tuesday morning to continue to answer questions.
Recall that Fowler was on Monday iinvited by the EFCC in connection with an ongoing investigation into fraud allegations against Alpha Beta Consulting, a tax consulting firm said to belong to the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
The firm, which consults for the Lagos State Government on Internally-Generated Revenue, has been fingered in a N100billion fraud allegations.
Fowler, before his appointment as FIRS chairman, had served as the boss of the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service, which pays Alpha Beta a commission for its service.
Former Managing Director of Alpha Beta, Oladapo Apara, had recently raised the alarm that the company defrauded the Lagos government and failed to pay tax.
Apara alleged in a recent suit he filed at the Lagos High Court that the company had been diverting billions of naira from the coffers of the Lagos State Government since 2002.
He also accused the firm and its owners, including Tinubu, of money laundering, forgery and a number of corporate fraudulent practices.
Apara in his suit also joined Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos, who he accused of complicity, as a defendant.
The former Alpha Beta boss further alleged that in 2018 the company had so far generated N1.5 trillion for the Lagos government, out of which it got 10 percent as a commission but had failed to pay tax.
But tax consulting firm had denied the allegations and rather accused Apara, its former boss of committing “the worst form of libel.”