Tinubu dragged to court over Alpha-Beta ownership tussle

Oladapo Apara, a former Managing Director of Alpha-Beta Consulting LLP, has told the Lagos High Court that the firm got over N150 billion as its 10 percent commission for “computing, tracking and reconciling” Lagos State’s Internally Generated Revenue since the year 2000.

Apara also claimed that the consulting firm, which was floated in the year 2000, is being operated by a former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, through proxies, Punch reports.

He claimed that the business model was his brainchild but was hijacked, as Tinubu, who was then Lagos Governor, allegedly insisted on 70 percent shareholding by his two nominees as a pre-condition to give approval.

Apara stated these in a suit he filed at the Lagos State High Court in Igbosere, seeking to recover “all the sums adjudged to be due to the claimant,” from the revenues so far made by Alpha-Beta.

He wants the money paid with 10 percent interest.

The 1st-3rd defendants in the suit are Alpha-Beta Consulting LLP, Tinubu, and the firm’s current MD, Akin Doherty, who served as the Lagos State Commissioner for Finance during Tinubu’s administration.

In the suit, Apara claimed that with the deployment of technology, Alpha-Beta helped Lagos State to raise its IGR from N10 billion in 2002 to over N300 billion in 2019.

In his statement of claim, he stated, “The claimant avers that the 1st defendant LLP has received from the Lagos State Government commission for its services estimated at over N150bn from 2010 till date.

“The claimant avers that despite the huge income made by the 1st defendant LLP since 2010 till present, Messrs Tunde Badejo and Akin Doherty, acting under the direction of the 2nd defendant (Tinubu), breached Clause 8 of the Partnership Agreement and denied the claimant his share of the profit from the partnership as provided in the agreement.”