A tax consultancy firm Alpha Beta has discredited allegations raised against it by its former managing director Dapo Apara.
In a statement on Friday, the company’s managing director Akin Doherty raised its own allegation that Mr Apara diverted N6 billion from the firm.
Apara had in a writ of summons before a Lagos State High Court accused the company of being controlled by a former Lagos State governor Bola Tinubu. He claimed the company made mysterious payments of over N20 billion to several private accounts.
However, responding to the claims, Alpha Beta described Apara as an aggrieved ex-employee who was bent on tarnishing the image of the company after being sacked for financial impropriety.
The company claimed Apara diverted about $5 million during his time as managing director by inflating a contract which was worth about $300,000 and then diverted a separate N6 billion to personal use.
“The fact is that Dapo Apara began making his untrue allegations in the aftermath of his removal as Managing Director of Alpha Beta for fraud and unethical practices,” the statement read.
“While he was MD, Apara used his position to siphon huge sums of money from the company including but not limited to fraudulently converting $5m; money allegedly used 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 N6bn belonging to Alpha Beta to his personal use.”
The firm said Apara has refused to return to Nigeria from Dubai to be interrogated.
On allegations levelled against Tinubu, the company said: “The uncorroborated allegations against Asiwaju Bola Tinubu by Dapo Apara, in particular, show that he is bent only on creating sensational headlines to deflect attention from his own criminal activities.”
For over 15 years, Alpha Beta monitors and reconciles tax on behalf of the Lagos State Government for a commission.
