The company handling Lagos taxes, Alpha Beta Consulting on Thursday said that it has no contract with the State Government in execution of its newly-introduced land use law.
However, the firm was silent on allegations that its name was specifically mentioned in the new law that hikes tariffs for homeowners across the state.
“We would like to state that our company, Alpha Beta Consulting, is not involved in the collection and administration of the Land Use Charge of Lagos State,” the company’s deputy managing director, Bode Oluyemi, said in a statement to an online news platform on Thursday morning.
“Although we do business with the state as we do with other individuals and organisations that require our services, Land Use Charge collection and/or administration is not part of our brief,” he added.
The disclaimer comes as tempers flare amongst Lagosians over the new rates for land use and the claim that Alpha Beta, a private firm, had been specifically favoured by the law as a potential consultant to be engaged in verification of land use payments to state coffers.
The Lagos House of Assembly responded to the criticism yesterday, telling PREMIUM TIMES that Alpha Beta was erroneously written into the state law.
“It was a very costly mistake that should not have happened,” Tunde Braimoh, a spokesperson for the Lagos State House told Journalists by telephone Wednesday afternoon. “It was erroneously put in the draft copy of the law and we’re already working to remove it completely.”
“Alpha Beta or any other designated person(s) or corporate body who has the responsibility of monitoring the incoming revenue of the state through the collecting banks, shall provide a report to the Accountant-General of the State,” according to a section of the proposed Lagos State Land Use Charge Act 2018 said.
Mr. Braimoh newsmen that Alpha Beta would be removed from the law within three weeks.
He also said the new land use law, which is a revision of a 2001 law, has not been signed into law. But it was later learnt that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode had given his assent to it since February.
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