HOW TINUBU MAKES N1 BILLION MONTHLY FROM LAGOS STATE
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| Mr. Ahmed Bola Tinubu |
Former Lagos State Governor, Mr. Ahmed Bola Tinubu has been named in an elaborate tax collection scam in which he allegedly benefits to the tune of N1 Billion in compensation every month.
Lagos State Government had recently projected an average of N10bn monthly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) when Governor Babatunde Fasola, Tinubu’s successor and political protégé, unveiled a new tax administration structure called the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service, IRS.
Mr. Tinubu who presided over the affairs of Lagos State, Nigeria’s Commercial hub for eight years on the Ticket of Alliance for Democracy, AD, a party whose glory has now declined had been named in other questionable deals lately namely, accusation of stakes in Celtel, formerly V-Mobile using state resources. Also, he had propped up a phony oil trading company in British Virgin Island that would later resurface in Nigeria as OANDO, where Jibril Tinubu, his younger brother represents his interest.
Pointblanknews.com gathered that Mr. Tinubu, instead of using well trained Lagos State Internal Revenue Personnel, he decided to out source revenue collection task to a company which he had registered and run by his friends and cronies.
The company, ABC Consortium received N1Billion every month while Tinubu was in Government as consultancy fee.
According to sources that chose anonymity fearing backlash, several employees of the Lagos Internal Revenue department had been rendered redundant “sitting under the trees at Alausa” while their statutory responsibilities were usurped.
Under Tinubu’s helmsman ship, the ABC Consortium being tax consultant to the Lagos State government was able to hit the revenue target of N7.7 Billion every month as against N600 Million which was the steady monthly revenue of the state up till 1999.
Sources told Pointblanknews.com that Tinubu decided to appoint ABC Consortium, his private concern for business expediency and “optimum revenue mobilization.” The Consortium was said to have raised the state revenue base but at enormous cost to the same tax payers. ABC Consortium collected N1 Billion as professional fee every month. And when Tinubu handed over power to Mr. Fasola, the same legacy was passed on.
It is said that ABC still receives N900Million every month. An official of the Fasola administration who would not want to be named in deference to the civil service oath of secrecy said that “the criticisms against Tinubu is misguided because the same civil servants who are said to be redundant were actually under reporting the accruing revenue before Tinubu took power.” He said “people can raise objections to the fact that Tinubu appointed his own company to do the job but they should also pause and ask themselves ‘has ABC Consortium failed to deliver?’ the answer is No. They brought in more money.”