The controversy surrounding Alpha-Beta Consulting and its long-running role in Lagos State's tax administration has resurfaced, with questions over the company's alleged links to President Bola Tinubu and the amount it earned from collecting revenue on behalf of the state.
Alpha-Beta Consulting has for years provided tax monitoring and revenue-collection services to the Lagos State Government. The company became the subject of controversy after former Managing Director Dapo Apara accused it of financial impropriety and alleged that then-Governor Bola Tinubu had an undisclosed interest in the company.
The allegations have never been established as a finding that Tinubu personally received Alpha-Beta's revenue or commissions.
According to court documents filed by Apara in 2020, he proposed a technology-based system for tracking Lagos State's internally generated revenue.
Apara alleged that Tinubu, who was governor of Lagos at the time, required 70 per cent equity in the proposed business to be allocated to associates before approving the project.
The resulting company, Alpha-Beta Consulting, was incorporated in 2002. Apara alleged that the company subsequently received a Lagos State Government contract to assess and collect taxes and other internally generated revenue on behalf of the state.
The court filing said the consultancy fee was initially structured at 10 per cent of the revenue collected, subject to a benchmark that could vary from time to time.
Apara further alleged that some shareholders were holding their interests on behalf of Tinubu. Those were allegations contained in his lawsuit, not a judicial finding of ownership.
The precise lifetime amount paid to Alpha-Beta under its Lagos revenue-collection arrangements is not established by the sources reviewed.
However, a 2025 media report based on purported internal figures reported that Alpha-Beta's commission was 8 per cent of Lagos State revenue under the arrangement in question.
The report put Lagos tax revenue at approximately ₦1.253 trillion in 2024 and about ₦1.409 trillion by October 2025. Applying the reported 8 per cent rate produced estimated commissions of about ₦100.2 billion for 2024 and ₦112.7 billion for the first 10 months of 2025, or roughly ₦212.9 billion combined.
Those figures were reported as calculations based on alleged internal documents and should not be presented as an independently audited total or as money personally received by Tinubu.
Earlier reporting also quoted Apara as alleging that Alpha-Beta generated about ₦1.5 trillion in revenue for Lagos between 2002 and 2018 and received a 10 per cent commission. That would imply ₦150 billion in commissions if the allegation and rate were accurate, but the figure was Apara's allegation rather than an independently established financial record.
Apara's lawsuit alleged that Alpha-Beta was structured in a way that concealed Tinubu's alleged interest in the company.
In 2021, Apara filed another suit accusing Tinubu of secretly controlling the company and alleging that the former governor had benefited from the arrangement.
However, the dispute was settled out of court in 2022, and the litigation was terminated. Bloomberg reported that the settlement resolved the dispute but did not establish the allegations against Tinubu as fact.
Tinubu has denied having an ownership interest in Alpha-Beta.
The controversy returned in 2025 when the Lagos chapter of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) petitioned the EFCC and ICPC over allegations of tax evasion involving Alpha-Beta.
The petition was based on allegations by a former employee, Segun Oluwasanmi, who claimed that the company under-deducted and under-remitted taxes from employees' salaries.
According to TheCable, Oluwasanmi alleged that salaries were divided into two portions, with only part of employees' earnings subjected to tax, and that the matter had been raised internally. The allegations were submitted to the anti-corruption agencies for investigation.
These allegations are separate from the earlier accusations concerning the company's ownership and Lagos State revenue-collection contract.
The Alpha-Beta controversy involves several distinct claims:
Alpha-Beta has provided revenue-collection and tax-monitoring services to Lagos State.
A former managing director alleged that Tinubu had an undisclosed beneficial interest in the company. The allegation was litigated but ultimately settled out of court.
The company's consultancy fee has been reported at different rates, including 10 per cent in earlier court allegations and 8 per cent in a later media report.
There is no verified evidence in the sources reviewed establishing that Tinubu personally received the reported Alpha-Beta commissions.
Recent allegations of tax under-remittance by Alpha-Beta employees were referred to the EFCC and ICPC for investigation.
The central unanswered question, therefore, is not simply how much Alpha-Beta collected, but what the contractual commission structure was over each period, how much was actually paid to the company, what services were delivered, and who ultimately benefited from its ownership structure.
Those questions require audited financial records, contractual documents and the findings of competent investigative or judicial authorities before claims about personal enrichment or criminal conduct can be established as fact.
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