Former Director-General of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler is presently at the office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) where he is being quizzed over a N100 billion tax evasion allegation levelled against tax consulting firm, Alpha Beta.
He was at the anti-graft commission’s headquarters in Abuja following an invitation.
A former Managing Director of Alpha Beta Consulting, Dapo Apara, had in a 2018 petition alleged that the firm, which had been granted exclusive rights to monitor and collect Internally Generated Revenue on behalf of the Lagos State Government, was being used as an avenue for official corruption of government officials, a conduit pipe for massive money-laundering scheme, tax evasion, among other vices.
Fowler was the Director-General of the Lagos Inland Revenue Service (LIRS) at the time.
Read Also: HIV: Hospitals now Dispense Drugs to Last Patients for Three Months
The petition signed by Apara’s counsel, Adetunji Adegboyega, read in part, “Over the years the company (Alpha Beta) has been protected and shielded by some powerful politicians and people in the society which made them to always boast of being untouchable, but our client, feeling the need not to keep quiet again and strengthened by his belief in the fact that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is keen on fighting corruption, which has been the bane of our country, is of the firm belief that it’s time to expose and open the can of worms called Alpha Beta Consulting.”
EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren confirmed Fowler was with the commission but declined giving more details.